Thank You, Anita Hill

I shushed my daughter on the drive home from school yesterday. Nina Totenberg was reporting on the weird, WTF news that Virginia Thomas was asking Anita Hill for an apology.

"Who's Anita Hill?" my daughter asked.

"Let me listen to this and I'll tell you later."

There's no reason why my 14-year-old would recognize Hill or understand why she was in the news. The world she lives in is very different from the one nearly two decades ago, when the young law professor was called to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about her experience working with Clarence Thomas, who was nominated to succeed Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court.

Working women in 1991 lived in a world where few had heard the term "sexual harassment," and fewer companies had any kind of policy for dealing with it -- but most of us had experienced it.

If you've watched Mad Men, you know what I'm talking about. Even though the women's movement was in full swing by the time I entered the job market as a teenager (in the early 1970's), it was obvious that the men who worked in management had not yet received the memo.

The first time I went job hunting, I was advised by HR to wear a short skirt for an interview with my prospective boss. A few years later, I had a supervisor who tried to pressure me into dating him. Another boss had a disconcerting habit of standing behind me while I was working, and massaging my neck.

And then there was my time in 1980's Hollywood: The pitch meeting that concluded with the producer telling me how great he was in bed... or the writers' room where the executive producer announced that it was his right to touch the women on staff, whether we liked it or not.

There was one series I worked on that taped before a live audience, and on show days, the (male) writers would stop work promptly at 3:00 so they could align themselves against a second-floor window, which gave them a terrific view down the tops of the women in line for the taping.

I never complained to anyone; that simply wasn't done. I don't know how others handled this sort of thing. I was just good at avoidance; doing whatever I could to never be alone in a room with the men I worked for (and in one case, I quit the job).

And then came Anita Hill; the soft-spoken, conservatively dressed law professor, who claimed to have endured a pattern of sexual abuse while working for the government under Clarence Thomas. She was questioned brutally by the all-male panel of Senators. She did not waver. It was an act of bravery that few women at the time would have ventured.

Thomas denied all the charges and as we all know, his nomination was confirmed.

The country was divided over who to believe -- but the division was mostly by gender. Regardless of their political beliefs, the women understood. The following year, sexual harassment claims shot up by 50%.

I'm not saying that these kind of offenses don't occur any longer -- but most people today do know what sexual harassment is, and supervisors understand that there are real consequences for making inappropriate advances or allowing an environment that could be described as a "hostile workplace." My daughter will start her career with the knowledge that should an employer make sexual advances towards her, she has recourse.

And for that, I thank Anita Hill.

Donna Schwartz Mills is a mother and a writer in Southern California. Read more of her work on her personal blog, SoCal Mom.

Comments

[mamikaze]

I lived in a Navy town and the combination of this and Tailhook created a swirl of sexual harassment training. Every year of Junior high, we had an assembly or teacher-led training on how to say "this is sexual harassment and you have to stop." The 3 local bases HR offices were flooded with grievances. It made all of us girls stand a little taller.

[Oklahoma Girl]

Most women knew she was telling the truth. The Democratic Senators should have protected her but, Arlen Spector was the real PIG of the show.

Maybe his wife's bad decisions and Teabagger comments and money will get this man impeached. The conservative judges on the court are probably doing a lot of things that effect the outcomes of their trials. We the People have a right to know about them.

Thank you Anita Hill for all you did. Thank you Jenny Thomas for all you may be about to do. Wouldn't it be nice to know her motivation for stiring all this up. Maybe she too has had enought of good ol' Clarence.

[Lisse]

At the time that this happened, it bothered me that I was somehow expected to believe Anita because I was a woman.

The stories were so egregious and unprofessional that it was difficult to conceive of someone (Thomas or anyone else) really acting like that.

And then, shortly afterward, I had my own experience with it.

Given the stories that are now coming out from Lillian McEwan, I think Ginni Thomas is going to regret that phone call very much.

Or at least I hope so.

[Glennia]

I read the book Strange Justice by Jane Mayer & Jill Abramson after this came out--there was a lot more to the story than what we saw in the media. Plus, the guy who wrote the book smearing Anita Hill later apologized to her and admitted it was part of a political operation, and not journalism.

[Debbie Owensby Moore]

My political awareness began as a result of watching those hearings. I knew that a woman would not put herself through all the badgering of all those white men if she wasn't speaking the truth. Yes, Anita Hill we thank you once again!