France could hit men with minimum €90 fines if they are caught making loud and lewd comments in public places about a woman's body or appearance, under new proposals put forward to the government to tackle the scourge of street harassment. A new government report recommends the €90 fine for "behavior that is an infringement of the freedom of movement of women in public spaces and undermines self-esteem and the right to security." The goal is to battle the long-standing problem of so-called "everyday sexism" on France's streets.

Sri Lanka is to allow women over the age of 18 to buy alcohol legally for the first time in more than 60 years. The government said that it was amending a 1955 law that it agreed was discriminatory against women. The amendment to the law, announced on Wednesday, also means that women will be permitted without prior approval to work in places that sell alcohol.

The country has laws protecting people against harassment in the workplace and courts in which those laws are supposed to be enforced. Several high-profile lawsuits — including Gretchen Carlson’s suit against the former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, which was settled for $20 million — have reinforced this impression. But this notion is misleading. In fact, courts routinely dismiss cases brought by workers who claim their supervisors propositioned them, kissed them or grabbed their breasts. The judges declare that the conduct does not constitute harassment in a legal sense, and refuse to let the cases go to trial. How did we get here?

“How can a model stand against an abusive photographer, stylist, or casting director when people in the industry have built a wall of protection around predators and are willing to look the other way to protect their own interests, regardless of the well-being of the model or the industry as a whole?”