Recently, I was told a story about a professor who said that in her life she has been sexually harassed the most by her students. I haven’t quite been able to forget about that… How am I supposed to forget the fact that some punks in their 20s decided they could, without deterring repercussions, harass a grown woman who has significant authority over them.

I furrowed my eyebrows with frustration as I was told about two different instances in which male students made comments about her appearance or insinuated that they had romantic thoughts about her.

Let me back up, though. The reason I was told this story was because we were discussing Cheris Kramarae’s Muted Group theory. (I know, here I go talking about theories again… Bear with me.)

This theory suggests that certain groups have a diminished ability to speak and be heard. The group this theory focuses on is — as you may have guessed — women.

Now, of course, the extent to which women are heard varies from country to country, from culture to culture. There is no universal standard and there is no way to collectively change the way women’s thoughts and words are valued.

However, we can focus in on our fruit cake of a country and try (or pretend) that all women in the United States can be lifted out of our muted existence. While there is absolutely a difference in how an African American woman’s words are received verses a blue-eyed, blonde-haired woman’s words, let’s just hypothetically average it — just for about 500 more words.

Okay, now that we’ve done that, let’s address this averaged reality for women in the U.S.

For the most part, women are not considered the breadwinner in their household. Women are expected to change their last name when they get married. Women are asked if they will return to work after having a baby, often because companies assume they will stay home to raise their child. Women are labeled as someone searching for an MRS degree if they verbalize their hope to find a spouse in college.

All of this assumed, it seems rather evident that women have certain stereotypes which keep us contained within the domestic realm. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing bad about a woman who can make a mean chocolate chip cookie before picking her children up from elementary school. However, there is a problem with the fact that this expected domesticity leads to a societal dynamic which places men in positions of social authority and women in positions of limited influence.

While women who choose to stay home with their children have the honor of raising up the next generation of humans, there is a serious deficit of women in positions of powerful social influence.

For example, women’s decisions are being voted on by a majority male Congress (right now, only about 20% of Congress is female). Another example is the fact that, as of 2017, only 6.4% of Fortune 500’s CEO roles were held by women.

Take that number in for a minute.

These statistics might be representative of greater gender issues in the U.S., but right now, I am focusing on the fact that these statistics show how some of our nation’s most influential positions are filled with men. That’s a big deal.

Throwing back to the idea of a work environment being exclusively viewed as a sort of “boys club,” we can reminisce on the idea of women — who served as secretaries or positions of the like — were intentionally kept out of certain clubs and meeting so that the men could “talk business.”

Pardon me for using such an anecdotal example, but we do see this modeled in shows like Mad Men, Downton Abbey and even Parks and Rec which mockingly includes examples of this phenomenon. Women were actively kept from conversations of significance because we— oh, wait. There actually weren’t any real reasons.

Perhaps there were arguments as to why women were not included, but if I had more page space, I’d poke holes in the validity of those supposed reasons a hundred different ways.

Ultimately, my point is this: We are still living in a world where women are being silenced, systematically.

I am able to speak loudly and clearly through this column within the pages of this newspaper, but shouldn’t we be pushing for more than this? Shouldn’t we be asking women what they plan on doing with their degree, not who they’re dating or how many kids they want to have?

I think so.

Regardless, let me give even one more example. The Time’s Up movement that tore through our nation’s entertainment industry was catalyzed by a letter written by 700,000 female farm workers. These women decided to write this letter of solidarity because of their own experiences as women trying to hold their own in a male-dominated industry.

The catastrophe we saw bold women shine a light on last autumn was the result of a culture which tells us women shouldn’t speak up else there will be significant consequences. The #MeToo and Time’s Up movements exposed just how significantly silenced women are, especially when it comes to issues of sexual assault.

So, I encourage each of us to perhaps read up on the Muted Group theory and then take a critical look at the way nearly half of our population seems to have a gag tied around our heads, keeping us quiet out of fear or unheard through isolation.

This, of course, isn’t always the case, but it Is the case far too often.