Anne Robinson says women need to accept workplaces are 'sexually treacherous'

TV host Anne Robinson said young women “still weren’t doing anything” about sexual harassment in the workplace and that she “certainly didn’t run crying to the loo” if a man “tried to pat my bum”.

The former Weakest Link presenter said women needed to accept that workplaces are “sexually treacherous” environments, recalling the kinds of harassment she put up with at political conferences in her younger days.

She said it was important for women to “show their strength” in such situations.

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.”

The 73-year-old has made a new BBC documentary which delves into the recent sexual harassment scandal, as well as other controversial topics surrounding equality.

Recalling how she deal with unwanted advances when she was a young reporter, she told the magazine she did not “clout” a man if he “tried to pat my bum, because I never attached that much importance to it”.

“I just used to sigh and curtly say, ‘Look, I’m very busy, please don’t waste my time,’ she said, “I just thought the quicker I got to the top, the sooner I wouldn’t have to put up with this nonsense.”

The presenter said: “It angers me why this behaviour has been allowed to go on for so long.

“I was also really shocked that women further up the pole weren’t doing more to curtail it.

“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, but maybe I’m just a different sort of warrior.”

The broadcaster, who has long been known for her tough manner on game show The Weakest Link which ran between 2000 and 2012, said: “It’s important for women to show their strength and make it clear they’re not going to put up with this rubbish.”

She shared some experiences of her own, recalling political conferences how she had “trade union leaders chasing me up the stairs of Brighton’s Grand Hotel.”

She said: “It sounds ghastly but I just thought it terribly funny.

“The same powerful guys who could call the country to a halt were the ones pathetically trying to get into my hotel bedroom,” she said.

“Tory and Labour conferences were exactly the same. MPs would drink too much at parties and lose all their inhibitions.

“Fortunately, I was far too quick for any of them.”

It is not the first time she has shared strong views on the subject of sexual harassment.

She previously caused anger when she spoke on Radio 4 about the “fragility of women who aren’t able to cope with the treachery of the workplace.”

She claimed that 40 years ago, “there were very few of us women in power and, I have to say, we had a much more robust attitude to men behaving badly.”

The full interview is in the new edition of Radio Times magazine.

Additional reporting by Press Association.