Office lad culture is one more club that remains off limits to women.(Features)

Byline: Mary Carr

So it'S business at usual at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

For the lads. After an anxious Christmas worrying about their punishment, it's back to the drawing board for the ringleaders of the office totty beauty pageant.

Presumably, they'll be a lot more discreet the next time they decide to rate all the new female accountancy recruits according to their looks and be more respectful in their internet correspondance.

they've been given a second chance, which is more than can be said for the five young women sacked from iCS Building Society for sending pornographic emails.

two of the women have taken a case to the Employment Appeals tribunal. they argue that the emails were a bit of fun, are part and parcel of their workplace culture, where staff, junior and senior, regularly gathered around screens to openly view salacious material. they say that they are being victimised because they are junior staff and female.

i believe them. their behaviour was crude and disgusting but something tells me that if they were professionals and perhaps of a different gender, they'd also get off with a rap in the knuckles.