Anita Hill -- Notes

Reference Reading

-Anita Hill = young law pr from Oklahoma
-Charged Appellate Court Judge Clarense Thomas, Supreme Court nominee, with sexual misconduct 10 years before at EEOC
-Hill talked candidly about sexual harrassment, opening way for other cases including Tailhook
-Sexual harrassment claims filed with EEOC went up 50% in 1992 + almost doubled over next couple years.
-Companies made classes, public services ran annoucements
-Hill's trial showed women their power
-Major consensus against Thomas anyway because of writings/opinions about minority and women's rights; he supported natural(religious)law
-D. Joe Biden was Judiciary Committee chair
-Committee of Women made on last day of appeals, brought up privacy laws and minorities, and low representation for women
-1991: 49 women/740 life-tenured judges (7%)
-Thomas claimed never to have discussed Roe v. Wade in his life + had no view on the issue
-Senators thought abortion was women's only issue
-Thomas's speeches and writings made him seem part of the right-wing extremists but he stayed neutral on most things.
-Many Senators thought he didn't express his real views.
-Erwin N. Griswold argued that Thomas had no real experience.
-Senate committe passed to whole Senate
-Senate committee had been aware of sexual charges but had ignored them.
-Senate sent message that they didn't care about sexual violence
-"Senate is a men's club"
-7 cogresswomen marched to Senate to demand repoening of the trial but they were denied
-Biden agreed to many constraints for the hearings
-Senators set out to tear apart Anita Hill, "she didn't even have legal counsel forty-eight hours before the hearing"
-No woman on Judiciary Committee
-1986: Supreme Court ruled sexual harrassment form of job discrimination that prevents worker from enjoying euqla employment opportunity.
-"Thomas was Senator Danforth's protege"
-Senate room was completely full, with huge long table for Senators, smaller table for witnesses, and "theater seats" for observers
-Thomas, strong/emotional vs. Hill, cool/dignified
-Thomas's rebuttal "he was victim of high-tech lynching"
-Dem's caved under accusations of a leak+racism
-Rep's ruthlessly attacked Hill's character
-Hill said later that people readily believe men in harrasment cases
-Thomas, educated, gentleman couldn't have done it, professional woman wouldn't have allowed it?
-Thomas confirmed with 52-48
-Public polls believed Thoas, Hill became sumbol of courage for women.
-20 years before, Jo Carol LaFleur fought for women's right to teach when pregnant
-Ida May Phillips, Florida waitress w/7 children, won case because she was rejected or a job because of her preschool aged children
-Members of Congress rushing to go on record against sexual harrassment
-Americans couldn't agree on who was telling the truth, but they agreed that the Senate "had performed abominably"
-Powerful image of all male committee grilling Hill with no sensitivity made clear connection between who's elected and women's treatment
-"This was about male arrogance of power; it was about insensitivity to women's life experiences", on Nightline when there were no women speaking.
-Made the famous add "What If", designed by Mandy Grunwald