Women's group calls for end to City's lap-dancing culture
Monday, 31 March 2008
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Women's rights campaigners have called for an end to the use of strip clubs as venues for business meetings, as a report exposes their widespread use by London city firms.
The Fawcett Society releases a report today, which says the practice of entertaining clients in lap-dancing clubs is increasingly commonplace in the City of London.
The manifesto, entitled Sexism and the City, condemns the "widespread" culture of using lap-dancing establishments as a backdrop for business dealings.
Katherine Rake, society director, said: "Within a business context, women's bodies being exposed is demeaning and degrading.
"It is time for women and men to stand up against the sexist culture of objectifying women that has gripped our society. Our campaign is calling upon government, businesses and individual employees to take action. Everyone pays the price for sexism, so everyone has a role to play in stamping it out."
The survey was conducted on the basis of anonymous testimony from City workers, and found that company visits to strip clubs and sex discrimination in the work place were both "increasingly normal".
The manifesto calls for a change in the law that would have the clubs re-classified as "sex encounter establishments".
Under current law they only require a premises licence, as needed by ordinary pubs and clubs, but such a change would put them in the same category as sex shops. According to the Fawcett Society, such a change would ensure establishments were scrutinised, and that the women who worked there would be given greater protection by local authorities.
A survey of more than 500 women found 60 per cent would be uncomfortable working for an organisation that allows its employees to use lap-dancing venues to entertain clients. The full survey of more than 1,000 adults found that 52 per cent of men and 59 per cent of women believe it is unacceptable for businesses to use lap dance clubs as venues for entertaining clients.
Dr Rake said it was difficult for women in the City to take a stand against such practices.
"There's a post-feminist irony where it's seen as a mark on your character to comment on these things; as if you're not getting the joke," she said.
The report also looks again at issues of equality in the workplace that are still not being addressed, such as the pay gap, the glass ceiling, and flexible working hours. "A lot of these issues are old ones that just don't seem to be moving fast enough", said Dr Rake. More than 30,000 women a year lose their jobs because of pregnancy, according to the report, and Britain still has the largest pay gap between men and women in the EU.
Women working full time are paid on average 17 per cent less than men; part-time workers earn more than a third less.
In the US, Morgan Stanley paid $54m (£27m) to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit in 2000, after the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission brought forward evidence that a former female bond trader was excluded from client outings to strip clubs.
Since then the company has had a no-strip club policy, but many UK firms have not caught up with this.
In 2002 Julie Bower received a record payout of £1.4m after she was ridiculed and given a tiny fraction of the bonuses awarded to male colleagues in her time at Schroders Securities, in the City.
