Anne Robinson: Just why DID female MPs let it go on so long?
ANNE Robinson yesterday suggested it was a ‘disgrace’ that women MPs had ‘allowed’ sexual harassment to continue for so long at Westminster.
The TV presenter said women 50 years ago were more robust about ‘fending off this sort of behaviour’ and that modern women appeared to have a ‘fragility’ which left them unable to cope with ‘treachery in the workplace’.
She said women in positions of power should do more to stop such conduct being tolerated and help younger female colleagues to report sex pests.
Miss Robinson denied accusations of ‘victim blaming’, but on social media her views were described as ‘dreadful’ and she was branded a ‘dinosaur’.
The 73-year- old spoke out after 36 ‘sex pest’ MPs were reportedly named in a ‘dirty dossier’ by Conservative staff. Former culture secretary Maria Miller has also claimed that she was sexually harassed ‘numerous times’.
Miss Robinson told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme: ‘If there are former Cabinet ministers now saying, “oh yes, it goes on in the Houses of Parliament”, why haven’t they done any- thing about it? … it’s a disgrace that they’ve allowed it to go on happening.
‘I’m not blaming the victim, I’m being pragmatic. In a perfect world men wouldn’t behave badly but they are going on behaving badly until it’s inconvenient for them not to.
‘Part of that has to be women in powerful positions start helping younger women not to put up with it.’
She also told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Forty years ago, there were very few of us women in power … we had a much more robust attitude to men behaving badly … the glass ceiling has been shattered but running alongside that is a sort of fragility amongst women who aren’t able to cope with the treachery of the workplace.’
Miss Robinson criticised Theresa May, saying: ‘How come the Prime Minister, only 24 hours ago, decided this was a problem? She’s been an MP for 20 years, she’s been Prime Minister for over a year … it has become inconvenient to ignore it any more.’
She said she believed she never experienced much sexual harassment because she developed a strong ‘don’t mess with me attitude’, adding: ‘Bullies only operate where they think there’s a weakness.’
Her comments provoked outrage on Twitter, where Pippa Sturt wrote: ‘Anne Robinson is a dinosaur who should not be given air time.’
Another tweeted: ‘Now we have Anne Robinson blaming women for not speaking out – she clearly doesn’t understand the balance of power in all cases. If you speak out people don’t believe you.’
And @tealtastic wrote: ‘ Shame on Anne Robinson. This is classic victim blaming. Absolutely disgusted.’