A builder works on the the roof of a new home
Fewer women run the gauntlet of lecherous building workers as the wolf whistle dies out, according to the survey Reuters

Gone are the days when a roofer customarily wolf-whistled at the sight of a pretty woman walking past a building site. Once notorious for their neanderthal attitudes towards women, a majority of blokes on sites now feel the practice is sexist and chauvinistic.

A study by the Direct Line for Business suggests that 75 percent of tradesmen feel it is inappropriate to wolf whistle.

The research was conducted on roofers, plasterers and construction workers in the UK about their changing attitude towards the opposite sex.

Nearly 56 percent said they believed wolf whistling was sexist and chauvinistic and amounted to sexual harassment. Around 19 percent said they did not wolf whistle because of fears that they would be sued for sexual harassment.

Some construction workers have been fired over complaints of wolf whistling.

"The research reveals changing attitudes to acceptable behaviour in the workplace, with people labelling behaviour other generations might have tolerated as outdated and inappropriate," says the head of Direct Line for Business, Jazz Gakhal, according to the Telegraph.

Gakhal added: "It appears the days of women being wolf-whistled at as they pass building or construction sites are dying out. Attitudes regarding acceptable behaviour towards members of the opposite sex continue to evolve and it appears that for many the wolf whistle represents a time long past."

A quarter of respondents said, however, that they did not find anything wrong with wolf whistling.

The wolf whistle is said to go back to the early days of the British Navy and originated from the sound made by a bosun's pipe to get the crew's attention for an announcement.