A study from the Harvard School of Education found that 87 percent of teenage girls and young women have reported being a victim of sexual harassment. But what does this stem from? Well, it all stems from “Toxic Masculinity.” Toxic masculinity is when men feel like they must be hyper masculine to compete with the other men around them. This affects the workplace, school environments, and society as a whole.

At school, young girls face over-sexualization from the time they enter middle school, sometimes earlier, for almost the rest of their lives. As soon as they start middle school, they get an entire set of rules of what they can and cannot wear thrown on them, otherwise known as dress code. While dress code has a purpose, it is targeting young girls and becoming more of a distraction than a solution. Teachers enforcing the dress code hoping for less distractions are ignoring the underlying issue at hand. As many more girls are continuing to get pulled out of class and losing learning time, the problem is growing worse. An example of this is the sexualization of schoolgirls. This problem can be seen if you were to compare what pictures come up if you were to search, “schoolgirl” and “schoolboy.” There is a very apparent difference between the two types of images that come up. If you were to search up a schoolboy a completely average boy in a modest school uniform would appear. But, if you searched up a schoolgirl, lingerie costumes would show up. This distinguishes the difference in how women are perceived and how men are perceived in society.

Furthermore, the workplace is not as equal as it is portrayed. Women have always complained about being treated unfairly in the workplace, but many employers have chosen to not believe them for the sake of their companies’ reputation. Many of the women in work environments have been made to feel less than their male coworkers simply because of their gender. Generally, young women are not treated as equals but more as objects everywhere that they go. Any teenage girl or young adult women could tell you that they do not feel comfortable or safe going to unfamiliar places alone. This is an issue. They should be able to travel alone, go to work, or simply go to the grocery store without feeling like they must be hyperaware of anyone that passes.

Sexism is far too normalized today. But what can people do to help stop it? Most of the superiority complex a lot of men have starts during their childhood and drags on throughout their lives. Parents should be making sure that they are not teaching young boys anything that may fuel this idea while bringing up their child. Another important aspect of their childhood is created during school. A solution could be getting schools to spread awareness instead of also contributing to the problem, as mentioned earlier: the dress code. In public, women are expecting to be sexualized in the form of catcalling. The men doing these things face little to no consequences. This further proves that most women feel uncomfortable in the world today, and it is completely normalized. These types of men need to be held accountable for how they have made women feel.