Report finds the sex industry is undermining equality between women and men at work

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE FAWCETT SOCIETY

Embargoed until 00:01, Thursday 17th September 2009

Report finds the sex industry is undermining equality between women and men at work

The use of lap dancing clubs and display of pornography in a work context is a major new threat to women’s equality at work, a report by the Fawcett Society (1) reveals. The report ‘Corporate Sexism: the sex industry’s infiltration of the modern workplace’ (2) is being launched today at an event (3) hosted by BT, with Harriet Harman QC MP, Minister for Women, the key-note speaker.

This is the first report in the UK to assess how the unprecedented expansion and normalisation of the sex industry during the 1990s and 2000s is impacting on the workplace. It finds exposure of employees to pornography at work is rife – resulting from illicit consumption by staff and employer policies of displaying pornography for sale purposes. A trend of entertaining clients and staff in lap dancing clubs is also being fuelled by lap dancing club marketing.

Click here to download the report.


The report’s findings include:

•    41% of UK lap dancing clubs directly target employers through marketing on their websites (4)
•    86% of lap dancing clubs in London provide ‘discrete receipts’ which enable employees to claim back expenses from their employer without it being evident the money was spent in a lap dancing club (5)
•    Lads’ mags are displayed for sale purposes in over 50,000 workplaces. A content analysis of leading titles revealed all contained pornographic imagery. Yet there are no independent, compulsory guidelines regarding the display and sale of pornography, and no major retailer has a policy of covering up lads’ mags or putting them on the top shelf
•    26% of trade unions have received enquiries from members who have been exposed to the sex industry – including pornography - at work (6). Existing research has also revealed that 20% of men admit accessing pornography at work (7).

Fawcett’s research reveals that the use of lap dancing clubs and display of pornography in a work context is seriously undermining women’s status at work and is in violation of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.

Recommendations in the report include:
•    Implementing independent regulation of sexually explicit print media
•    Covering up lads’ mags and putting them on the top shelf when displayed in shops
•    Implementing robust workplace policies and  procedures to prevent pornography and lap dancing clubs being used in a work context

Kat Banyard, Campaigns Officer at the Fawcett Society and co-author of the report, said:
“Despite relative silence on the issue within employer circles, our research shows that 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, and have failed to prevent the illicit use of the sex industry by employees in a work context. But this is an issue that employer’s cannot afford to ignore.   

“The sex industry is increasingly targeting the corporate market, with lap dancing clubs marketing themselves as ideal venues to host meetings and client entertaining. Yet lap dancing clubs are a form of commercial sexual exploitation and fuel sexist attitudes towards women. Their use in a work context discriminates against female employees and undermines women’s status at work.

“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. Pornographic lads’ mags are openly displayed in over 50,000 retail shops – each one of them somebody’s workplace. But displaying these magazines in this way is in violation of the Sex Discrimination Act, so it is crucial that retail employers cover up pornographic newspapers and lads’ mags and place them on the top shelf.”

Catherine*, a woman who shared her experiences with the Fawcett Society, commented:
“I am a contractor and when I visit site the ground engineers frequently use lads’ mags and pornography, and as it isn’t my usual place of work I am made to feel that I can’t make a complaint (otherwise they simply won’t use my services again).”

*The individual’s name has been changed to protect her identity

For further information and to request interviews please contact Kat Banyard on 020 7253 2598.

Notes to editors
1) The Fawcett Society is the UK’s leading campaign for women’s rights. www.fawcettsociety.org.uk
2) The report, ‘Corporate Sexism: the sex industry’s infiltration of the modern workplace’, is available to download from www.fawcettsociety.org.uk
3) The report is being launched on Thursday 17th September at an event at BT Tower, 11:15-14:00. Speakers at the event are: Rt. Hon. Harriet Harman QC MP, Professor Aileen McColgan (barrister at Matrix Chambers), Caroline Waters (Director of People and Policy, BT Group), and Angela Mason CBE (Chair of the Fawcett Society)
4) The Fawcett Society identified the presence of 319 lap dancing clubs in the UK. 177 of these clubs had active websites. All of these sites were visited and 72 (41%) contained marketing targeting a corporate audience.
5) The Fawcett Society identified the presence of 62 lap dancing clubs in London. A random selection of 35 of these clubs were selected and telephoned to enquire about the provision of discrete receipts. The researcher was able to speak to representatives of 21 of these clubs, and 18 (86%) confirmed they could provide discrete receipts.  
6) The Fawcett Society received responses from 58 trade union branches to a survey on member enquiries relating to the sex industry.
7) TopTenREVIEWS 2009