The sex industry is infiltrating the workplace and undermining equality, says the Fawcett Society
David Woods, 18 September 2009
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1 comment on this article.The sex industry is undermining equality between men and women at work, according to a new report.
The Fawcett Society has investigated corporate sexism and the sex industry's infiltration into the modern workplace and found 26% of trade unions have received enquiries from employees who have been exposed to the sex industry - including pornography - at work.
Nearly nine out of 10 lap dancing clubs in London provide ‘discreet receipts' so employees can visit and claim the money back from their employer.
The Fawcett Society believes this type of behaviour demeans the status of female staff in workplaces and has recommended employers take action to prevent porn and lap dancing clubs being associated with corporate purposes.
Kat Banyard, campaigns officer at the Fawcett Society, said: "Despite relative silence on the issue within employer circles, our research shows the sex industry is a major threat to women's equality at work. For too long, employers have engaged with the sex industry without due regard for the impact on female employees in a work context. But this is an issue employers cannot afford to ignore.
"The sex industry is increasingly focusing on the corporate market, with lap dancing clubs marketing themselves as ideal venues to host meetings and client entertaining,
"While the days when it was deemed acceptable to hang ‘girly calendars' on office walls may be long gone, the presence of degrading imagery of women in UK workplaces has never been more endemic. It is crucial that retail employer cover up pornographic newspapers and lads' mags and place them on the top shelf."
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Peter Kiddell - 18 September 2009
A major multi-national with a household name organised a seminar where the new Sales Director was to be introduced to their major clients. The clients were given an address in Central London that happened to be in Soho. The venue turned out to be a strip and lap dancing club. Some of the audience who were exclusively male were to say the least uncomfortable and somewhat reluctant to consume the finger buffet prepared on the premises and many were even less inclined to imbibe in the alcoholic drinks that were provided at 10.00 am.
Then came the introduction and \(you have guessed) the new Sales Director was a women who clearly enjoyed parading on to the stage that was normally occupied by more scantily clad women. It was she who organised the event. The company has a strong gender equality policy and clearly felt that this was a venue that was most suitable. May be they should speak to the Fawcett Society.
Nobody wants to go back to the "Good old Days" of workhouses, single mothers having their babies taken away at birth, slavery, wide spread use of opium as a medicine, radioactive belts to cure indigestion. However if you demonise every man who looks at a picture of an unclothed women as a pervert, it is going to be increasingly difficult to discover the real perpetrators of paedophilia, rape, trafficking and torture that are now included in the "Sex Industry." Oh, and by the way many women actually enjoy pornography.
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