I definitely do not buy into the “gentler sex” notion that men should be more respectful to women than to other men, and if any yeshiva is teaching that, they are wrong. “
While I often agree with you, this is an area where I will agree to disagree. men should be respectful to each other, OF COURSE, but i believe in good manners, and a lady should be treated as a lady. Part of why they are not, these days, is that so many young women unfortunately do NOT act like genteel ladies. But that does not mean men should be ill-mannered boors. One teaches by example. If you act like a mensch on the subway, the people observing you will absorb your act by osmosis, if nothing else. the more Jewish people treat EACH OTHER with derech eretz, the more it will be found in the general society. Derech eretz literally means, the way of the land. It presupposes that the way of the land is proper and considerate.