There can be no place for sexual harassment

Every business, company and organisation needs to have strict policies in place to end this scourge

Hardly a day goes by when we are not met with headlines about women who have been sexually harassed in their workplaces. A recent BBC survey found that half of British women have been sexually harassed at work. It is a litany of abuse that seems to have no end, where no one is spared, and no one can believe those high-profile figures involved. And sadly, the cases that do indeed make the headlines are just the tip of the iceberg. For far too many women, the workplace is a space of vulnerability, where their sex and professional role make them fall prey to letchers and the lewdly.

Surely, we must now have reached a stage where any man in a position of authority or oversight in a professional setting or environment, who views any female employee for sexual objectification and harassment, ought now be regarded as a Neanderthal, with nothing more to offer than a primal thought process. Sadly though, we have not reached that stage and women still endure the sexual advances of their superiors and endure the pains of such highly inappropriate behaviour.

Every company, business or organisation must ensure that all their employees are treated equally, with dignity and respect, free of being targeted or bullied by those who abuse their positions of authority. And those who engage in sexual harassment, or demean their employee’s person, or abuse their professional positions in any such manner, ought to face the sternest disciplinary measures as a matter of course.

Only when we all take this issue seriously will this flood of headlines begin to abate.