Anita Hill’s Legacy

Anita Hill, lawyer, professor and activist, is a powerful symbol of feminism.  Her testimony at the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings in 1991 increased public awareness of sexual harassment and made it much less tolerated in the workplace.  It was a defining moment for how the country viewed the subject.

In her autobiography, ‘Speaking Truth to Power,’ Anita Hill wrote that creating a better society had been a motivating factor in her life.  She has dedicated her career to combating discrimination, including sexual harassment, and opening equal opportunity to all in the workplace and beyond.

Hill’s charges against Judge Clarence Thomas revitalized feminism, produced race and gender issues, inspired women to run for office in record numbers, and increased the number of women willing to speak out publicly about their own experiences of sexual harassment, when they might have suffered in silence.

Anita Hill, who was subjected to extensive unwanted conversations about sex and pornography from her then boss, Clarence Thomas, said she testified truthfully about her experiences and stood by her testimony. She was courageous in coming forward. But her credibility and character were berated, she was accused of being delusional, and she was attacked by Judge Thomas and his supporters.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, headed by Joe Biden, challenged and dismissed her accounts.  During the hearings, the fourteen member panel, composed entirely of men, asked Hill about her sex life, and she was falsely accused of working with liberals who opposed the confirmation of a conservative to the Supreme Court.  Though Biden said he believes Anita Hill and voted against the confirmation of Judge Thomas, as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he made a deal and compromised with Republicans who wanted to defend Presidents Bush’s nominee.  Biden refused three other women, who had their own sexual harassment allegations against Thomas, to come forward to give their testimony.  He said that the Democrats were reluctant to oppose a Black nominee.

In 2007, in Judge Thomas’s autobiography, he called Hill his “most traitorous adversary,” and said that pro-choice liberals, who were afraid that he would overturn ‘Roe vs. Wade’ if he were appointed to the Supreme Court, wanted to use the controversy against him.

In the aftermath of the hearings, a record number of women were elected to congress, and Senator Diane Feinstein became a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Women demanded better legal protection and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1991, which provides damages for the injuries a victim might suffer, and gives the victims the right to a trial with a jury of her peers.  Employers took notice and anti-harassment policies became more commonplace.

Hill’s testimony made it possible for millions of women to come out and speak about sexual harassment. She recently wrote: “Over the past 25 years, we’ve raised public consciousness that this is a reality of women’s experiences that occurs on multiple levels.  It occurs in the workplace and the street, it occurs online and it occurs when women are looking to get jobs or looking to get promoted.”

Hill has worked as a civil rights attorney, a professor of Women’s Studies, and is a speaker on race and women’s rights; a published author of articles on the subjects of civil rights and international law; and has published several books.

In December, 2017, Anita Hill was selected to lead the charge against sexual harassment in the entertainment field for the the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace.

Hill says she believes that Washington cannot lead the country on the issue of sexual harassment, but that the country has made progress.

I am hopeful that the culture of cover up is falling apart. Public debate on sexual harassment has become more serious, the #MeToo movement is making more institutions and people commit to giving women and girls the protection they need.  It’s time to make sure our laws are strong enough.  Anything less is an injustice to women.

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