While the technology itself is not faulty, some experts question the usability of panic buttons. In India, women—the target demographic for panic button usage—are 36% less likely to own a mobile phone than a man, according to GSMA, a worldwide mobile operators network. In the hinterlands, this disparity is even wider with only 12% of women using a phone. This is especially worrisome since between Jan. 01, 1984 and Dec. 31, 2009, almost 80% of rapes were committed in rural areas.

TEQuitable is among a wave of businesses emerging in the wake of widespread revelations of sexual misconduct in workplaces. The startups, many of which have female founders or co-founders, want to disrupt a costly and persistent problem. A Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll this fall reported that nearly half of women say they have been sexually harassed at work, and the financial stakes for employers are substantial.

Restaurant people are famously loyal, so perhaps it is unrealistic to expect mass denunciations of Mr. Batali and Mr. Besh. What has been so infuriating, though, is how few leaders in the industry have been willing to go on record against the behavior itself — behavior that was, after all, banned by federal law several decades ago.

Federal judges have lifetime tenure under Article III of the Constitution. So removing a judge requires impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate after a trial. It’s no surprise that Congress has meted out this punishment only eight times in our country’s history, and never for sexual misconduct. For this reason, the only realistic way to hold judges to account for the kind of allegations that have torpedoed the careers of power brokers in other professions in the post-Weinstein era is through an internal process that allows judges to punish their colleagues with lesser sanctions like suspension, public rebuke or a recommendation that the offender step aside.

The chief justice said he’s asked the director of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts to assemble a working group to consider whether changes are needed in the judiciary’s code of conduct, its guidance to employees about reporting misconduct and rules for investigating complaints. “These concerns warrant serious attention from all quarters of the judicial branch,” he said.

How about Matt Damon refuses to show up to work until his female co-stars are paid as much as he is? How about Jimmy Fallon refuses to interview anyone who has been credibly accused of sexual assault or domestic violence? How about Robert Downey Jr. relentlessly points out microaggressions against female contemporaries until he develops a reputation for being “difficult”?

Vice Media has suspended its president, Andrew Creighton, and chief digital officer Mike Germano, as it investigates allegations against them, according to a company memo sent to employees Tuesday. A Vice spokesman declined to comment. The Times had reported in late December that it found four settlements involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against Vice employees, including Creighton. The newspaper talked with more than two dozen women who say they experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct, including groping and forced kisses. Vice Media co-founders Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi have apologized for the "boy's club" culture .

“Whilst we would rather have no incidents at all, I can tell you that with that particular one the woman involved, the person involved, and her friend actually apprehended the male and then handed them to security, who then handed them to police to be investigated,” said Tasmania police Senior Sgt. Darren Latham. “So it is encouraging that people are taking positive action, but we would of course wish that this didn’t happen at all.”

Antonia Niecke, chairperson of the Christian Democrats' youth wing in Hamburg, argues that safety zones for women assume that sexual assault is a given and, knowing that, questions how women can really be expected to enjoy New Year's celebrations. Criticism has also come from the German police, despite the fact that the safety zone has been set up by the capital's own police force. Rainer Wendt, head of Germany's police union, told a regional paper on Saturday that the apparent need for safety zones implies that public space is unsafe, indicating "the end of equality, freedom of movement and freedom of choice." Wendt says women should feel safe everywhere.

“Regardless of who you work for, you will run into the same people over and over again who will not want to work with you just because you reported harassment. In most cases women become unemployable because of it.”

Like Hollywood actresses, but considerably worse off financially, waitresses endure rampant sexual harassment with impunity. A whopping 90 percent of women in the U.S. restaurant industry report being subject to unwanted sexual advances at work, and more than half of women say these interactions occur weekly, according to a Restaurant Opportunities Center report from 2014. For the restaurant industry—which employs 10 percent of the overall U.S. workforce and where women outnumber men by two to one—the magnitude of sexual harassment is difficult to fathom.

Americans differ widely in their views of what constitutes sexual harassment, with age and race as well as gender throwing up the dividing lines, posing a challenge for those who police for such conduct in the workplace.