Harman slams City strip club culture...again
Harriet Harman, who has previously railed against male bankers visiting lap dancing clubs, has endorsed a report by an equality charity that finds evidence that the use of strip clubs by City of London firms perpetuates gender inequality in the workplace.
The report by the Fawcett Society, titled "Corporate Sexism: the sex industry's infiltration of the modern workplace", was launched at an event yesterday morning, where Harriet Harman was the key speaker.
Harman, the minister for women and the leaders of the House of Commons, said that she backed the reports findings, and that it was inappropriate for corporate firms to entertain clients at strip clubs, according to sources at the event in London.
In February, Harman told a trade union conference that the financial services industry treated women unfairly, and that the culture of male executives making trips to the seedy clubs was unacceptable.
The Fawcett report found that the use of lap dancing clubs for work-related events was undermining womens' status in the workplace. Kat Banyard, campaigns officer at the Fawcett Society and co-author of the report, said: "For too long, employers have engaged with the sex industry without due regard for the impact on female employees, and have failed to prevent the illicit use of the sex industry by employees in a work context."
Harman said that she would raise the issue of 'discreet receipts' for lapdancing clubs with UK Chancellor Alistair Darling. The receipts allow individuals to claim for client entertainment expenses without notifying their firm where the entertainment took place.
Included within the report were personal testimonies from women who used to work in the City of London, who felt that socialising at strip clubs was prevalent. One read: "Colleagues would go to lap dancing clubs. I knew it was happening, and felt excluded from socialising. They would obviously bond on nights out like this.”
Another said: “When I complained I was told I should learn to ‘manage my own exit’, i.e. go home on my own before they went to such a place. Some of them even complained about me, saying I had failed to take the hint that they were going to a lap dancing place and that I was in the way. Then I never met any more clients.”
The Fawcett Society also found that lapdancing clubs would market themselves specifically to financial firms. One establishment advertised itself as "always the first port of call for Europe's biggest and busiest financial district", while a second said: "So tell me, where are you going to take them to clinch the deal? Exactly, there's only one choice - either one of my clubs - fantastic food, incredible wine list, vintage champagnes and the most beautiful girls in the UK.”
The report made reference to cases in which financial firms had ended up in a court as a result of their use of strip clubs. In February 2009, Standard Chartered was accused of sex discrimination at an employment tribunal, where the claimant told the tribunal that it was “not uncommon for offsite meetings to end up in strip clubs.”
To read the report in full, click below.
-- write to mturner@efinancialnews.com
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