Telling a woman she ‘has balls’ is not sexist, employment tribunal rules
TELLING a woman she “has balls” is not sexist, an employment tribunal has ruled.
Technology exec Rachel Power sued her boss after he said it at work, accusing him of demeaning her.
But a panel ruled the phrase merely suggested she was displaying “defiant bravery”.
Miss Power was on a three-month contract for web start-up firm Secure Code Warrior when she got into a dispute with CEO Pieter Danhieux.
In a conversation via messaging platform Slack, he accused her of scheming with others to have him deposed.
Mr Danhieux told her: “So I heard . . . you asked for me to step down from the CEO role.
“Must admit, you got balls as a contractor.”
Miss Power told the hearing she felt intimidated by his language.
The tribunal was told: “He had used sexually offensive words to insinuate that, as a woman, Miss Power could not have the strength of character to do something challenging and that therefore, she must be masculine and ‘have balls’.”
Mr Danhieux said he had used the phrase to express “surprise and annoyance” at Miss Power’s “front”.
Miss Power, who started at the Northampton-based firm in January 2018, made a formal complaint.
After her contract ended, she sued for sex discrimination and harassment, claiming she was excluded from meetings.
The Sun Says
IT’S not often we congratulate employment tribunals for their common sense.
But one saw right through tech exec Rachel Power’s claim that she was sexually discriminated against by a boss who told her: “You got balls.”
Everyone else knows it’s harmless slang for having guts.
As for bringing a case over it . . . that really is a load of balls.
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However, her claims were all dismissed at the London tribunal.
The panel ruled: “He used a turn of phrase which he did not associate with sex.
“The tribunal found the phase was not one of a sexual nature but a colloquialism for defiant bravery.”
The Sun says
IT’S not often we congratulate employment tribunals for their common sense.
But one saw right through tech exec Rachel Power’s claim that she was sexually discriminated against by a boss who told her: “You got balls.”
Everyone else knows it’s harmless slang for having guts.
As for bringing a case over it . . . that really is a load of balls.
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