Anne Robinson believes modern women in the workplace are “too fragile” and they need to toughen up to avoid harassment.
The new Countdown host began her career in the then male-dominated media industry in the 1960s before eventually making then moving into TV, becoming famous for her acid tongue as the host of the BBC game show, The Weakest Link.
Anne, 76, has watched on with interest as the MeToo and Time’s Up movements have gathered support and prominence, but she believes many modern women could avoid sexual harassment and bullying if they stood up for themselves and didn’t allow men to behave badly.
Anne is “cross” there so many “clever women” who don’t do enough to protect themselves from the worst men.
Speaking to Saga magazine, she said: “I do believe even the dimmest of men are beginning to realise that women should be safe in lifts, but I promise there are a few easy tricks to not be putting up with nonsense in the office.
"I slightly get cross that women don’t learn to look after themselves better in an office, in a work environment.
"Clever women now get jobs, which they didn’t necessarily 50 years ago.
"I’m not quite sure how they become more fragile, I don’t mind them being fragile, but I do think there are a few tricks. I’d say you actually pull him aside and say, ‘What you did was totally inappropriate, don’t dare do it again.’”
Anne got her no-nonsense attitude when it comes to men from her businesswoman mother Anne Josephine who started off selling poultry from the local market.
She said: “I had an unusual upbringing. I had a father who adored performing and loved literature, and I had a mother who was very clever at making money and gave no impression that working with men was the least trouble whatsoever.”
She began her career in journalism as the only female trainee reporter at the Daily Mail in the late 1960s, before also working at the Daily Mirror.
Speaking in an interview earlier this month with Radio Times, Anne also insisted there was a long way to go to get true equality.
“I’m still not sure that younger women have worked out what they want,” Robinson said.
“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.
"I’m starting to feel like it’s going to take another 100 years to get true equality.”
