Back in 1991 Anita Hill forever changed the way we talk about sexual harassment

[DesertRat]

She also clearly demonstrated why women don’t speak out against their attackers - especially high profile ones.

Before Harvey Weinstein, before Roger Ailes, before #metoo -- there was Anita Hill.

In October 1991, Hill testified about sexual harassment she allegedly endured from Clarence Thomas, her former boss at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and then a Supreme Court nominee. Before an all-male Senate Judiciary Committee, she recounted the allegations, sparking a national conversation about sexual harassment: what it is, how it's defined and whom it affects.

Thomas was eventually confirmed to the Supreme Court. But after Hill stepped into the spotlight in 1991, her experience forever changed how we talk about sexual harassment in the workplace.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/30/pf/anita-hill-sexual-harassment/index.html?sr=twCNN103117anita-hill-sexual-harassment0100PMStory

[dlk]

1. Retaliation Against Women Speaking Out About Sexual Harassment is Very Real and Very Effective

If we take a look at the way Anita Hill was demonized and how Clarence Thomas was rewarded, we will see the very difficult, uphill battle women had then and still have today, when speaking out about sexual harassment. In 2017, we still have very far to go.

[Irish_Dem]

2. Will this planet ever be safe for women? nt

[bobbieinok]

3. Women reporters present for first time

IIRC all NPR reporters on the story were women.

They even discussed that while JFK's womanizing was an open secret in DC, there was a 'boys' club' agreement not to go public with the story.

And remember that after the Senate essentially ignored Hill, many women began running for Congress.

For the first time I heard older women (in their 40s and 50s) talking about the problems they had had at work. This discussion happened spontaneously in a church discussion group. And, more surprisingly, among some causual acquaintances in a branch library in OK. The discussion there became loud and agitated enough that it caught my attention from across the room.

All the women said it was very upsetting, but there was nothing they could do -- that was 'just the way it was.'

[DURHAM D]

4. Senator Biden orchestrated the public stoning of Anita.

If he runs in 2020 this will sink him.

WE REMEMBER