As an employee of the University of California, I'm compelled to take annual sexual harassment training, that is, how to identify situations and behaviors that constitute sexual harassment as it has been legally defined. A lot of what was mentioned in the post and in the comments here would be regarded as reportable offenses, if not prosecutable offenses. People should know the law - this stuff can get you in real trouble. If you're in California, this might apply [pdf]:
If you're not in California, but you're running a business you may find it quite interesting, eg:
Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or
physical conduct of a sexual nature, when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or
implicitly affects a person’s employment or education, unreasonably interferes with a person’s
work or educational performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working or
learning environment. ... This policy covers unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.
Incidentally, according to interpretations of US and CA law, it is OK to do things like (politely) ask a co-worker out on a date. But, if they say no, you are supposed to get the hint, and if you continue to ask, you're opening yourself up to charges of harassment.
From the training I took, my understanding is that if the low-cut dress comment or comments like it was repeated in the presence of a manager, the manager would have to act in some way. (A manager has a duty to not allow a "hostile work environment".)
Depending on the specifics of who was at the meeting, it does not matter that the person in the dress didn't mind, because it's not just about conduct a specific person finds unwelcome, it's about a hostile work environment.
Some people up-thread are more in the wrong about this than they seem to realize.
This is true but pretty unhelpful. The problem is that involving official proceedings or the law almost always looks like overkill. In the aggregate, these events amount to a very serious problem, but individually each one doesn't feel like enough to be worth making it official. Nobody wants to be known as "the person who got someone fired for a comment about a dress", even if they were totally justified. Even normal, decent people are going to be wary of you if you end up with that reputation, deserved or undeserved.
That's the essence of the problem I think. It's a big problem, but it's hard to do anything about it without being seen to be overreacting.
http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/employees/policies_employee_la...
If you're not in California, but you're running a business you may find it quite interesting, eg:
Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects a person’s employment or education, unreasonably interferes with a person’s work or educational performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working or learning environment. ... This policy covers unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.