A construction awards ceremony featuring scantily-clad women on stilts has sparked a sexism row.
Women dressed in skin-tight costumes modelling personal protective equipment (PPE) could be seen at the industry event for On The Tools, an online community for builders.
Reportedly, ‘horrified’ attendees shared their fury over the act and claimed that one woman ‘literally walked into a crotch’.
Faye Allen, a diversity campaigner, told the Telegraph: ‘There’s also a lot of issues over PPE. We’ve been fighting really hard for PPE that fits, for women and other diverse groups. To have people put on hi-vis colours and dress like that, it’s frustrating.’
The former director of the construction company Arcadis also added: ‘I’ve been in the industry for 30 years – I stopped working for contractors on site because I got sick of the way I was treated, and women are still being treated that way today. It has to change.’
Numerous people on LinkedIn criticised the event as regressive and sexist.
Harriet Waley-Cohen, also a diversity campaigner, said she was ‘appalled’ that the company decided to ‘sexualise and devalue women in the industr y’ as well as portraying them ‘for their sexual desirability not their brains or talents’.
Women dressed in skin-tight costumes modelling personal protective equipment (PPE) could be seen at the industry event for On The Tools
Critics have labelled the event online as regressive and sexist and said they were ‘appalled’
On The Tools’ original post has now drawn more than a thousand reactions and hundreds of comments.
Sponsors of the vent included companies such as Dulux Trade, Howdens, Renault Trucks and Toolstation.
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Since the video was aired, Lee Wilcox, the chief executive of On The Tools, has issued a public apology on LinkedIn.
He said: ‘We asked for a construction theme but didn’t check the outfits. But no matter the ins and outs of it and how it happened, this was a f— up and we’re sorry.
‘We always aim to empower women, which is why I’m personally really, really sorry to anyone we’ve offended. Those that know me, know this isn’t what I’m about, and as the leader of the business our culture and beliefs are a reflection of me directly. Which is why this is on me.’
Mr Wilcox also personally apologised to Ms Allen and Ms Waley-Cohen..
Earlier this month, a Labour-run council was forced to apologise after its plans for a children’s park to include a specific area for girls to sit and chat was labelled as ‘pure, old-fashioned sexism’.
Toolstation, along with Dulux Trade, Howdens and Renault Trucks, were some of the sponsors of the event
Brighton and Hove City Council unveiled special spaces in play parks for girls to socialise next to more rough-and-tumble equipment such as slides and climbing frames.
A poster for the park showed three half spheres close to a slide and climbing frame, which were labelled as ‘three half spheres to create social spaces for girls with informal seating/climbing’.
The proposals – which are part of the £150,000 refurbishment of Hove Park – have been blasted by parents as a ‘return to the 1940s’.
One mother told The Times: ‘It claims to be a social space for girls to interact but shows one girl engrossed in her phone and not communicating at all with the other.
‘Why do people presume its only girls that want to sit down and socialise and chat together when boys love doing it as well? Also, girls love the rough and tumble of the playground. The council is guilty of pure, old-fashioned sexism.’
MailOnline has contacted On The Tools for comment.