As a businesswoman the alleged behaviour at the Presidents Club doesn’t surprise me

Women allegedly being told to stand on the table and rip off their knickers.

Men in perfectly tailored suits bidding on plastic surgery to “add spice to [their] wife”.

Event organisers allegedly demanding their staff sign non-disclosure agreements in an attempt to silence the young women, many of whom were university students, from sharing their experience of the annual Presidents Club charity dinner.

It’s not exactly the 2018 story people were expecting.

After all, it was only 10 days ago that headlines were alight with calls for Oprah to run for President of the USA. Her Golden Globes speech emphasised everything that 2017 had exposed and 2018 was meant to become – the year of silence-breaking and change-making, followed by the year of positive change towards a new horizon where “nobody will have to say me too again”.

Yet here we are, less than a month later, and the investigative work of the Financial Times has exposed an example of a toxic culture that refuses to die.

Talk to women at the top of their game in business and finance, however, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find more than a raised eyebrow.

Are they horrified? Yes. Furious? Yes.

But that the behaviour described by the FT’s undercover journalists continues today comes as no shock to women at the top.

For me, the report was baffling. In what world is underwear part of your uniform as a hostess? How can anyone think that groping or pawing at young staff is anything but offensive, belittling and demeaning? And what kind of example do organisers and business leaders think they’re setting by hosting and attending such events?

No doubt, if any of the male attendees asked to comment on the occasion, they’d claim their behaviour was harmless. I’m sure some will have even behaved appropriately. Plus, they’re raising thousands for charities – so it’s all for a good cause, right?

But here’s the thing: a good cause is not an excuse for misconduct. And silence is the reason these types of behaviours have perpetuated for centuries.

It is the silence, the excuses, the denials and claims to know nothing (despite in this case the host reportedly boasting that this was “the most un-pc event of the year” in his opening speech) that mean women cannot slow down in 2018.

The world of business and finance is still one where the old boys’ club flourishes, in which unequal pay and gender exclusion continue to exist.

The FT did a phenomenal job in uncovering the truth of the Presidents Club and how systemic these problems are.

But more than just highlighting and uncovering stories like this – whether they are charity galas, Hollywood magnates, stories of gender discrimination or unwanted sexual advances in the workplace – it also emphasises the desperate need we have to see stories of successful women.

We need to see more female entrepreneurs who have managed to stand their ground and navigate a patriarchal world, without giving in to a male-oriented “dog eat dog” approach to business. More events like Davos 2018, which is 100 per cent chaired by women. Or awards like the Association of Independent Music, where Lara Baker has done a phenomenal job of trying to get a 50/50 gender split on all panels.

Every day women are bombarded by stories of old boys’ clubs, of unfair treatment, unequal pay, of being excluded from company events because of their gender. These stories do nothing but detract women from wanting to enter those industries.

We may have Oprah, but we need female leaders everywhere, every day.

We need to expose the brilliance of our female talent – because it’s there. Only by attracting more women to these industries will we be able to enact true change through society and put an end to stories like the Presidents Club.

Anna Meyer is a director at Common Industry. She previously ran the inaugural Nasty Women, UK campaign and is now in the process of launching a female founders initiative to increase the visibility of positive role models in the media.​