However, anyone who has a daughter (or a few daughters) certainly can relate to the desire to protect our children, even when they are grown, especially barely grown and in their 20s.
I have a daugher and agree with you as a father. However, the law is (or should be) a different matter. If you are going to adopt a sweeping standard of sexual harassment, millions of married men who propositioned co-workers or suburdinates would now be in jail. Genuine sexual harassment, if the term has any valid meaning, would be based on either coercion and/or exchanging favors for sex by employers or co-workers.
Has anyone charged that of Cain? If, on the other hand, you regard a 21 woman as a fragile child who can’t make adult decisions, then are should stand up and call for taking away her right to vote and serve in dangerous jobs, such as the military. Are you?
“Genuine sexual harassment, if the term has any valid meaning, would be based on either coercion and/or exchanging favors for sex by employers or co-workers”
Coercion, absolutely, but that would be handled by the criminal law. Exchange of favors I don’t get. What is the state’s interest in regulating favors? You’re free to turn offers down, every bit as much as males are free to turn down all the myriad informal, not strictly business-related routes to advancement open to us.
It may not be good business or morals, but company policy, Corporate Ethics, Community Standards, Family Values, and so on can take care of that. Why does the law have to intrude on every little thing? We’re talking about voluntary transactions, no different as regards a woman’s rights and a man’s duties (according to legal tradition, if not morals) than helping your buddy move. I realize the same argument can be made for prostitution and drug use, but so be it.