Catcalling on North Sea oil rigs branded ‘unacceptable’

Catcalling on North Sea oil rigs branded ‘unacceptable’

Harassment of women offshore has been branded “unacceptable” as a female engineer shared her experience of facing catcalling while working in the North Sea.

In a widely-shared social media post, engineer Hazel Forgan underlined how she was made to feel “uncomfortable and disrespected” twice on a UK platform, just a week after International Women's Day.

It comes as the Axis Network gender equality group revealed nearly 60% of female offshore workers it surveyed at the end of 2020 had experienced something similar.

Ms Forgan granted permission to Energy Voice to share the post, where several other women commented with accounts of their own experiences.

One industry professional said reaction to the post was similar to the response to a statistic released last month following the murder of Sarah Everard.

That stat, from UN Women UK, showed 86% of women aged 18-24 have experienced sexual harassment in public, and 71% of all women have (previous news reports incorrectly stated this as 97% and 80% respectively).

On her experience, Ms Forgan said: “Not only did this make me feel extremely uncomfortable but I felt disrespected and undermined as a professional.

“This is not the first time I have been made to feel uncomfortable from inappropriate male behaviour offshore and