‘TIME TO MOVE BEYOND 1991’ ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT: HILL
Nearly 27 years ago, a young African-American lawyer named Anita Hill sat alone at a table facing the all-male, all-white Senate judiciary committee and spoke about how her boss, Clarence Thomas, had sexually harassed her.
Her televised testimony was riveting.
It was the first time that many Americans or Canadians had ever heard about sexual harassment in the workplace, let alone details about an employer talking about a porn star named Long Dong Silver, about pornography that included sex with animals and about his pubic hair on a can of Coke. For some unexplained reason, the committee only called her to testify about her experience, even though there were two other women with similar experiences who were prepared to testify.
At the time, public opinion was split over whether Hill told the truth.
In the end, Thomas’ appointment was confirmed and, at 70, he remains on the high court where he can stay for the rest of his life.
As a university professor, author and speaker, Hill never relinquished the role of measured, thoughtful and powerful advocate.
But with the #MeToo movement and an American president who’s alleged to have harassed or threatened more than a dozen women including a porn star, she is once again back in the public arena.
In December, she was appointed as head of the commission tackling Hollywood’s “broad culture of abuse and power disparity.”
On Tuesday, she’ll be in Vancouver speaking at the University of British Columbia, which has recently had its own problems dealing with sexual harassment. (Tickets are free but registration is required.)
In a telephone interview, Hill said it finally may be the time to “move beyond 1991.”
“It is a long time coming and not going to happen overnight,” she said.
“But we are at a moment where there is resolve on the part of many people. If ever it could be possible, now is that time.”
Still, what Hill mostly talked about was how there’s still little understanding of sexual violence and a broad-based acceptance that it’s acceptable.
She notes there is no widespread consensus in workplaces or university and college campuses that “sexual extortion” is wrong and ought to have consequences.
“There is not necessarily a consistent understanding that badgering for days after being rejected a couple of times already or that sexual haranguing using sexual and sexist language isn’t appropriate,” Hill said.
“It’s still being dismissed as something that just happens and that we need to toughen up.”
Recently, a Canadian poll found that millennial men are out of step with the consensus on what’s appropriate in the workplace. They’re six times as likely than the average man to say it’s OK to view at porn at work during breaks and three times as likely to use sexual language, while men of their fathers’ and grandfathers’ ages were aligned with the averages.
“If you could run the clock back and ask the fathers at their age, you might get different answers. There might not be such a wide gap,” Hill said.
She suggested that what often changes men is having daughters.
“They develop an appreciation for the vulnerability of women in the workplace and, certainly, fathers of college students are very sensitive to that.”
At 61, Hill doesn’t regret testifying in 1991. She regrets the process wasn’t fair because it opened her to personal attacks and re-victimized her.
Hill also regrets that the hearing gave many people the wrong idea about sexual harassment, noting, “One senator said that I should be punished with real harassment.”
All these years later, many — if not most — women choose not to report sexual harassment or violence. They don’t trust that they’ll be believed and others, rightly, fear retaliation because studies indicate that more than half those who do report will be punished for it.
“As much as I would like for people to come forward, it’s hard for me to say that it’s an option that every woman should take,” said Hill, who teaches social policy, law and women’s studies at Brandeis University, near Boston.
“Women are still not believed unless 20 other women are saying the same thing in the same situation happened to all 20. There are still indications that we are prepared to assume that they aren’t truthful.”
Hill has no easy answers on how to transform society, but she talked about removing impediments to reporting and the need for appropriate guidelines, policies, procedures, laws and consequences.
Still, the most powerful motivator for change may be quiet, intimate conversations about the harshness and consequences of abuse.
“My own experience is that you can’t underestimate the value of even just sharing your experience and what your life is like,” she said. “People empathize with people they love and, if we share, maybe we can keep moving forward.”
Women are still not believed unless 20 other women are saying the same thing.