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In New York, a former boys club tries a new era

 
Susan Morrison, a New Yorker editor, is the first female president of a New York literary club.
Susan Morrison, a New Yorker editor, is the first female president of a New York literary club.
Published Feb. 22, 2016

NEW YORK — One evening last month, after the traditional cocktails and black-tie meal, the members of the Century Association gathered in the reading room of their Renaissance-style clubhouse on West 43rd Street and, with little fanfare, made a bit of literary history.

For the first time, the Century — New York City's pre-eminent private club of arts and letters — elected a woman as its president. It had only taken 169 years.

The distinction belongs to Susan Morrison, the 55-year-old articles editor of the New Yorker magazine and the overseer of its Talk of the Town and Shouts and Murmurs sections. She joins the ranks of past presidents like Elihu Root, Louis Auchincloss and William Cullen Bryant.

The quietude surrounding Morrison's ascendancy, which has not been previously reported, belies the complicated question of gender at the Century, an enclave that prides itself as a sanctum for worldly conversation about the arts.

Yet the club began accepting women as members only in 1988, after pressure from politicians and, ultimately, the Supreme Court, which upheld a city law requiring integration. A mere five years ago, its membership was temporarily riven after a mostly male contingent protested the severing of ties with a single-sex London club, called the Garrick, that barred female Centurions from entering alone.

By many accounts, Morrison's new role is a natural byproduct of her devotion to the Century, where she sits on multiple committees and often organizes events. The milestone of her election, members say, has scarcely been discussed. Several Centurions used the same word in describing the notion of a female president: "inevitable."

"It never occurred to me that it would not happen," said Helene Kaplan, a prominent lawyer and one of the original class of 20 women nominated to the Century in 1988, alongside Brooke Astor and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

"I really am delighted that things are much less pressured than they would have been years ago," Kaplan added.

Still, vestiges of the Century's haut monde past remain. Its ranks skew older, and more men than women roam its halls. Social register surnames are commonplace. Club bylaws rely on masculine pronouns to outline the role of the president, who leads a governing board and steers new policies.

But in conversations over the past week, two dozen Centurions said many of their peers had sought to move on from past embarrassments, citing Morrison's election as a case in point. Most spoke to the New York Times on the condition of anonymity to avoid violating rules that ban public discussion of clubhouse affairs.

Catharine Stimpson, a former president of the Modern Language Association, said that the election process was "very smooth" and that the tensions of earlier years had faded.

"The vote to let women in meant there was going to be a loss, and the loss was of a very comfortable all-male world," said Stimpson, who teaches at New York University. During the London episode, she said, "people felt like something was being taken away" by the "harridans of political correctness."

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The question of a female president, she added, is "absolutely different."

"No man is losing," Stimpson said. "What is winning is the principle of merit, and competency is shared by Centurions of all genders."

A coveted prize for a cerebral set of New Yorkers, the Century attracts a mélange of literary stars, civic titans, politicians and celebrities that can resemble the cast of a Tom Wolfe novel. Members consider it a scruffier, more bohemian version of mustier clubs in the city.

Morrison faced no competition for her new role. Reached by telephone, she declined to comment for this article, citing club rules.

Jose Ramos, a well-known employee who had greeted members at the clubhouse for decades, was honored at the same meeting on the occasion of his retirement. Startling some in the crowd, Ramos, after being presented with a silver cup, announced his happiness at being present for the day when a woman took over the Century for the first time.