Good for you.
I’m NOT NOT NOT saying sexual harassment is a fiction, or that women ‘deserve’ to be treated with anything less than the complete respect all people deserve.
What I am saying is that there are harsh realities in life. If your response were more common back in the day, then the women of today wouldn’t even have to think about it, because women should treat any harassment anywhere with the same response.
My one area of disagreement, though, is about the ‘right’ of someone to work somewhere, or that they put up with harassment because they ‘need the job’ or whatever. If someone is harassing you, and you stop them, that person is still there, and you (or anyone) has to decide if that simple reality is acceptable.
I’ve left many jobs because of the conditions of the place, not having to do with harassment or such. That’s life—if you don’t like working someplace, leave. We should be taught that kind of self-respect.
I think that in early 1970’s office politics were such that women in the office were “tested” by the dominant males and if they succumbed to sleeping with the boss to get ahead that was accepted, if they slugged the guy... they might be fired, but then again in my case it put the horndogs on notice and they pretty much went away to pursue easier prey. I do have to say that in that same office there was a woman in her late 30’s who was quite the cougar. In the case of some of the junior salesmen... I think she scared the heck out of some of them. So office behavior by both sexes could be inappropriate, especially when measured by today’s PC standards.