Sexist clichés still rife in the workplace

Working women are still subjected to sexist attitudes at work, according to a poll of more than 1,000 women by the employment law firm Slater & Gordon.

Six in 10 reported that they have had a male colleague behave inappropriately towards them. The old clichés of men “slipping a hand up their skirt or patting them on the bum” is still a regular occurrence for some women, it found.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Most people assume we have long moved on from the blatant sexism that blighted workplaces in the past. But sexual harassment is still very much a fact of working life for millions of women in all kinds of workplaces — from the shop floor to the boardroom.

She called on employers to adopt a “zero tolerance” approach to prevent it becoming an ingrained part of the workplace culture. She also called on the government to reverse its “disgraceful decision to scrap third party harassment rules that protected women receiving unwanted advances from customers”.

www.slatergordon.co.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2013/10/sexual-harassment-rife-in-the-workplace-new-study-reveals/