Making a Fallon of it

I'm sorry Michael Fallon has resigned. Not because he's in any way an admirable man. For heaven's sake, he's a Tory. But his resignation over what is being called in the British press, in their usual cliched and pathetic way, 'kneegate' will change nothing for the many women (and some men) who face being offended, denigrated and - at worst - abused every working day. Fallon groped a female journalist so much at a Tory Party conference 15 years ago that she threatened to punch him. The hints being delivered online are that Fallon is guilty of other 'crimes' (moral if not legal) but for the moment he's the sacrificial lamb being offered up by the Tory government.

The trouble is that Fallon's resignation seems to confuse sex pests with workplace bullies.

In the workplace, we won't get anywhere until we accept that the UK - and not just press, TV, radio and social websites - is run by men - old white guys, I prefer to call them - and has been for a long time. And for a long time, we've all ignored what's been going on.

Thus there are guys who feel entitled to indulge their liking for 'eye candy' and want only good-looking young women to work in their organisations. And, sadly, there are a few guys who feel they are entitled to sexual favours. These are the men in many walks of life who feel entitled to rape women and young men.

Harassers - almost entirely men - do not see anything wrong with going after women and some men who are younger and less powerful than themselves. They do it in private, in their offices and online. And when challenged - which they rarely are - they have a lot of defence mechanisms: the people who complain don't understand the banter that goes on every day in the workplace, take things too seriously, need to grow up, etc.

What most worries me is that we fail to see how badly a lot of people are treated in the workplace, not just women: for example, disabled people are denied jobs or appointed to jobs way below their capability. Young women are appointed to important posts, but then their employers get mad when, having achieved job security, they get pregnant and take time off. They quite often just sack or sideline them.

Are there people who use the system to make their way in a career? I'm quite sure there are. But they shouldn't have to.