To the editor:

As we move into the 2020 election year, there are two issues/concerns that I would like to see Democratic and Republican political candidates pay more attention to:

1. Equal pay for equal work for women

2. Sexual harassment in the workplace and in academia.

Sexual harassment should never occur. I myself was sexually harassed by a female professor who had a lot of power over me when I was a 25 year-old Ph.D. student. Fortunately, it ended (surprisingly to all) when the female professor who I served as a teaching assistant ,for and who happened to be a lesbian and was known as a “man-hater,” told her that she would report her to the university authorities if she did not stop it. So I learned firsthand how inwardly pain this is for women to experience and how it very often has painful long-term effects on many women. I hate knowing that almost every woman in our country has been sexually harassed at work and/or in college/university. It embarasses me and angers me as a man.

I call on all decent men and male political candidates to be more vocal and active about our country taking additional steps and action to end this shameful disrespect of women.

Sincerely,

Stewart B. Epstein

Rochester

P.S. I am a retired college professor of sociology, social work and psychology who is very proud to have taught at West Virginia University, Slippery Rock University and SUNY Brockport.