One manner in which the sexes--male and female--are not equal is with respect to the experience of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment includes, or is defined by, unwelcome advances in the form of gestures, words, or physical contact of a sexual nature. Females are disproportionately more sexually harassed than males.
Sexual harassment can be in the form of words. It can be unwarranted comments, text messages, phone calls, or emails of a sexual nature. It can also be aggressive and unwanted physical contact--for example, if you were grabbed or groped by another person. Someone can make lurid gestures that make you uncomfortable, which is another way to experience sexual harassment.
As society has moved towards greater gender equality, with the genders increasingly on the same plane in American society, there is a greater recognition of the problem of sexual harassment in society. Acts that were previously unpunished, when gender was far more unequal, are now being recognized as sexual harassment and punished on account of a greater gender equality.
EXAMPLE
For instance, there never used to be marital rape laws. A husband was not thought to be able to sexually harass or rape his wife. Now, however, those laws do exist.Sexual harassment has become more of a social problem as women enter the public space and the workforce. Work outside the home has historically been the purview of males--a male-dominated sphere. The introduction of females into workspaces has caused sexual harassment to become a much more salient issue, as men are coming into contact with women in workplace settings. Now it is quite common, when you start a new job, to go through some form of sexual harassment training.
Source: This work is adapted from Sophia author Zach Lamb.
