Russian company offers higher pay to women wearing skirt and dress at work

Offered by a Russian company, offering extra pay for women wearing a skirt or a dress to work provoked fury across the country, with feminists calling the attitude back to the Middle Ages.

Tatprof, an aluminum company, has pledged $ 1.5 a day to female employees who send their bosses photos that are dressed according to standards that also require modest makeup and tied hair.

The "marathon of femininity" would allow women to feel more feminine and would cheer the office for the team - mostly male - the company told TJurnal news site.

The company's policy has caused outrage from Russians in social networks.

"We are not here to make the days of men be brighter," user @jumagri wrote in the company's Instagram profile, while feminist blogger Zalina Marshenkulova described the attitude as "news of the Middle Ages."

Sought, the company declined to comment, referring to statements made to local media, in which it denied the campaign was sexist.

Tatprof said in the local press comments that all the women who have uploaded photos so far - from accountants to sales managers and industrial safety experts - "are smiling and even seem to be glowing."

Jacqui Hunt, director of Equality Now's European office, said the campaign perpetuated harmful stereotypes that are a setback for women and men.

"Such messages are disrespectful and offensive to Russian women and perpetuate damaging roles assigned to men and women by impoverishing society rather than allowing it to flourish," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The company headquarters is located in Naberezhnye Chelny, a major industrial hub in western Russia, and the company manufactures a wide range of aluminum products, from window frames to balustrades.

Russia's law prevents women from working on more than 450 "heavy duty" jobs and working under unhealthy conditions such as mining, fire fighting and diving.