FT investigation: Men only fundraiser and sexual harrassment

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amp.ft.com/content/075d679e-0033-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5?__twitter_impression=true
Sexual misconduct allegations
Men Only: Inside the charity fundraiser where hostesses are put on show
FT investigation finds groping and sexual harassment at secretive black-tie dinner

It is for men only. A black tie evening, Thursday’s event was attended by 360 figures from British business, politics and finance and the entertainment included 130 specially hired hostesses.

All of the women were told to wear skimpy black outfits with matching underwear and high heels. At an after-party many hostesses — some of them students earning extra cash — were groped, sexually harassed and propositioned.

The event has been a mainstay of London’s social calendar for 33 years, yet the activities have remained largely unreported — unusual, perhaps, for a fundraiser of its scale.

Hats off to the FT for sending two undercover reporters

By the way I am NOT saying this shit is OK. It's grim.

There are people who sell their kidneys. Technically they're consenting. Does that make it OK? Do we go "oh well, as long as they knew what they were signing up for and got paid organ trafficking is fine"?

The women who agree to take these kinds of jobs (if they truly did understand what they were getting into, which going by the reaction many of them had is doubtful) are not the reason that the jobs and the events associated with them exist. Those jobs exist because powerful men think that they have a right to have women to abuse. They don't even think of it as abuse because they think that's what women are for. How is this situation the fault of the younger, poorer women rather than the older, richer men who quite literally run the country?

I mean, it's not like girls grow up thinking "some day I aspire to have a job with no security or benefits which involves hiding in the toilet crying because a bunch of creepy old farts won't stop grabbing my bum". There are a lot of factors that go into someone willingly accepting a job like that.

The impression is from the article is its the worst of the worst.

The woman saying she couldn't believe she was back there again, after a bad experience five years ago doesn't exactly sound willing, more desperate.

The agency also.seems to have heavily downplayed it but made a point of removing phones (not normal even for escorting) and saying to come to them if anyone was 'too annoying'. They were well aware of how bad it was, but didn't say it outright.

Its a picture throughout of complicit behaviour and knowingly leading women into a situation in which it would be difficult to complain or escape if there was a problem.

Hence the non disclosure agreements to also help silence if anything serious did happen.

Hair... yes it is quite unusual. The woman providing the hostesses also seems to have been really cagey about the requirements (apart from the tall, slim and pretty ones, which are ubiquitous for high end hostess jobs, short unattractive women seem to put men off their cigars) until the last minute and she provided the dresses, make up and hairdressing.

If you are registered with an agency for this kind of work and accept a job, turning it down at the last minute means they will probably never send work your way again.

I doubt these types of dinners are rare in London. My DH gets invited to a men's only Xmas dinner every year which is held in a big hotel, although he has told me there are no hostesses there, just normal waiters and waitresses. So, for some men, the step from this type of event to one with hostess women may not seem extreme, as it is obviously something that has been totally normalised in our culture.

When I started working in London many years ago I was the only woman in my department and every Friday the men used to all go to a strip club for lunch, returning to the office braying and in high spirits, which made me feel very uncomfortable. Hopefully this culture will slowly change....

Hopefully this culture will slowly change.... that’s the fighting spirit

Yes I do think it will be slow! I sometimes think I live in a bit of a feminist bubble, as most of the people irl around me would not really think there is a problem with this hostess dinner!

Aaaargh, just heard this on the radio.
Those poor women. I have worked in pubs etc as a youngster and had to deal with the occasional creepy drunk bloke touching my bum, but this is not the same as being effectively trapped in a toxic environment like that, without the back up of those employing you, surrounded by powerful, entitled "annoying men" when you don't what they are capable of. Comparing this to (unacceptable) groping down the pub as a pp did is a complete false equivalence.

It sounds terrifying and some of those women would have been young, and should NOT be expected to "know what they were getting themselves into" when they turned up for a well paid job hosting at a black tie charity event.

Most people don't hear "prestigious charity event" and think "oh that job will involve men sticking their hands up my skirt and into my knickers".

It infuriates me that most of those men who attended, even if they didn't take part in the groping themselves, let it happen. They either didn't want to notice, or they noticed and thought it was fine. A great night out.

Even without the groping, I think its pretty shoddy that networking events like this are set up to exclude women, and its considered fine.

I work in a very male dominated industry, and it was very common for work socials etc to end up down the strippers etc, but I don't think there were any "networking" events which were so brazen about excluding women.

And 4pm to 2am for £150 is good money for waitressing, but it isn't that high. £15/hour to put up with that shit?

It's a thousand pities that GOSH isn't in a position to tell them to stick their money where the sun don't shine. I do wonder if charities could play a role by being ethical about how fundraising in their name is done.

I know it’s not the worst thing (by quite some distance) but I’m horrified that the naming rights to a hospital dept were part of this. I know names are often given for philanthropists, but not like this.

They're desperate for money. It raised £400k for no cost, why wouldn't they? Despite the number of super rich there are very few philanthropists any more.

Jimmy Saville got away with what he did, because of this exact same culture of turning a blind eye because of charity.

Wasn't that more that because he did so much for charity people were reluctant to believe he was behaving in the way he was? It would be great if charities could get together and agree some kind of standards around the kind of fundraising events they will give their name to.

One would like to think that GOSH could have £400k raised for them if the function was men and women and NO escorts. Shocked to read about this today, how feckin depressing.

I'm delighted this has been exposed by the FT and just as happy that Ms Dandridge's company that supplied the young women will probably go under.

Just to clarify, I was talking about naming the building in my post about £400k, not the event. Such an event is beyond the pale and has quite possibly damaged GOSH's fundraising in the short to medium term.

Its the only and best way to raise money for charity of course.

Kit Hesketh-Harvey said there as a "no groping" request on the programme for the event.

Is it my imagination or is there more push-back on this scandal than on recent ones?

It seems that Hollywood and its penumbra is a just target but this event less so. There's also the GOSH "but it will take money away from the kiddies" aspect. I suppose part of it will be people thinking "haven't we already done this? bored now".

Kit HH Is a complete hypocrite in my view. Did he object while he was there? Did he take the money? He's just turned into rent a gob and taken the opportunity to show what a good guy he is.

The only way this kind of thing will stop in the context of fundraising is by charities to insist that events held in their name are ethical. If GOSH had said no it wouldn't have happened. It's unrealistic to expect men to police this kind of thing for lots of reasons - career limitation, fear of peer ridicule or even, God help us, not getting it.

So to those who said "the women knew what they were getting into" does that men ebdufing sexual harassment was part of the job description/terms and conditions? And if not, why not? The company hiring them must have known. So either they agreed to it or they've failed to put in suitable protection for their staff. Ditto the event organisers. Someone should sue the fuckers.

Aargh

...does that mean that enduring sexual harassment...

Why did the venue feel the need to actually put a no harassment disclaimer to cover their own arse policy on the programme at all.

IT SHOULD NEED TO BE SPELT OUT.