 The French "Lodges of Adoption" which spread through Continental Europe during the second half of the 18th century admitted Masons and their female relatives to a system of degrees parallel, but unrelated to the original rite.After eclipse in the 19th century, they were revived as women-only lodges in the 20th, and these later adopted the male degrees to give rise to French women's Masonry in the 1950s.18th-century British lodges and their American offshoots remained male only.