A 76-year-old political scientist has become embroiled in a dispute after making a joke while travelling in a lift.

According to a report in the Atlantic, when someone asked what floor people wanted Richard Ned Lebow, a professor of political theory at King’s College London jokingly said “Ladies’ lingerie” - an old line which may or may not have been a reference to the opening credits from classic BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? 

Simona Sharoni, a professor of women's and gender studies at Merrimack College, was also in the lift in San Francisco during an International Studies Association Convention and later filed a formal complaint about the incident, prompting an investigation by the ISA, who concluded that Lebow must apologise in writing by May 15.

So far, Lebow has refused to apologise. Lebow told Associated Press. “This is a kangaroo court and is damaging to my career because there are people out there who somehow believe I'm a misogynist. I'm not a Harvey Weinstein or one of these people who are repeat offenders. There's never been anything like this with me, quite to the contrary, I have mentored and supported women throughout my career.”

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