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Now not only are there an estimated 20,000 women freemasons in Britain alone, but their male counterparts in the United Grand Lodge of England have decided to give the ladies a pat on the back by celebrating their centenary year with a special exhibition at their headquarters in Covent Garden, starting on June 4. It will be the first British exhibition on women and their involvement with freemasonry.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article3620126.ece

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One hundred years ago a new Masonic organisation was formed in London. It was the first Grand Lodge founded in England to admit men and women as members on an equal basis. From its formation in 1717, the governing body of English freemasonry had restricted its membership to men. By the end of the nineteenth century women were campaigning for full civic and legal rights and wanted to join Masonic lodges too. Women and Freemasonry: The Centenary exhibition at the Library and Museum of Freemasonry at Freemasons’ Hall in Covent Garden traces the history of their campaign. Women and Freemasonry: The Centenary runs from Wednesday 4 June to Friday 19 December 2008 (weekdays only) and is free of charge to all visitors.

http://www.freemasonry.london.museum/exhibits/women-freemasonry.php

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, Minn., April 10 /PRNewswire/ — The University of Minnesota has received its largest gift ever — $65 million from Minnesota Masonic Charities — to the University of Minnesota Cancer Center. With this pledge, Masonic support of cancer research and care at the University of Minnesota over the past 53 years totals $100 million. In recognition of this record-breaking gift, the University of Minnesota Cancer Center will now be called the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota.

"The Masonic Fraternity is proud to expand its partnership with the Masonic Cancer Center for a cure. The gift is new, but the giving is not," said Raymond G. Christensen, M.D., Grand Master of the state’s nearly 17,000 Masons.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/masons-give-u-of-minnesota-65-million-for-cancer-research,347520.shtml

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Aspiring for world supremacy? Then the Russian Freemasons are not the group to join.

"Many walk away disappointed when they don’t find buttons to operate the world behind my armchair," Russia’s top Freemason, former presidential candidate Andrei Bogdanov, said jokingly in his office in central Moscow.

Freemasonry — whose obscure origins have been traced to sometime between the building of King Solomon’s temple in the 10th century B.C. and the 16th century A.D. — once boasted an elite following in Russia, including 18th- and 19th-century nobility, poet Alexander Pushkin, architect Vasily Bazhenov and war heroes Alexander Suvorov and Mikhail Kutuzov.

These days, however, it is a more modest order. Indeed, the secret fraternity does not count any billionaires or senior politicians as members, said three Freemasons and two historians.

Continue reading: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2008/03/28/002.html