The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
TV star Anne ‘didn’t cry if a man tried to pat my bum’
TV presenter Anne Robinson has said women must accept that workplaces are “sexually treacherous” environments.
Speaking about sexual harassment, the 73-year-old said that “I certainly didn’t run crying to the loo” if a man “tried to pat my bum”.
The ex-host of The Weakest Link said women were “still having to put up with inappropriate behaviour from men while not doing anything about it”.
She told Radio Times magazine: “I’m still not sure that younger women have worked out what they want.
“I thought my generation had broken the glass ceiling on the journey to equality.
“But having passed on the warrior baton that enabled women to become prime ministers and heads of city institutions, it transpires they we’re still having to put up with inappropriate behaviour from men while not doing anything about it.”
Robinson has made a new BBC documentary which explores provocative issues around equality.
The presenter said: “It angers me why this behaviour has been allowed to go on for so long.
“But workplaces are politically and sexually treacherous and I’m afraid women do have to accept that.
“You have a choice. Do I get off the train and spend my life complaining and making a fuss, or do I stay on the train and make sure it never happens to me again?
“I always chose the latter.” Robinson said she did not “clout” a man if he “tried to pat my bum, because I never attached that much importance to it”.
She told the magazine: “I just used to sigh and curtly say, ‘Look, I’m very busy, please don’t waste my time’.”
Robinson said: “It’s important for women to show their strength and make it clear they’re not going to put up with this rubbish.”
As a young newspaper reporter, Robinson encountered sexual harassment at political conferences, with “trade union leaders chasing me up the stairs of Brighton’s Grand Hotel.
“It sounds ghastly but I just thought it terribly funny,” she said.