Joe Biden began the month by kissing foreheads and preaching unity at a breezy Labor Day march in Pittsburgh. He will end it under question about whether his decades-old record in Congress can withstand the withering scrutiny of the current political moment. With a sexual assault allegation against Brett Kavanaugh roiling Washington, Biden’s handling of a similar matter — the Anita Hill hearings — has erupted back into public view, exposing a rare point of weakness for Biden in the run-up to the 2020 presidential campaign. Read more>>
Brett Kavanaugh Could Make the Midterms a Landmark Election for Women
September 20, 2018 by
Anita Hill’s testimony in Congress triggered the first “Year of the Woman” in 1992, after she accused the Republican Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her. But that wave of enthusiasm and outrage mostly elected white women. The new allegation of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh, another Republican Supreme Court nominee, comes from a white woman. But in a rapidly diversifying America, it may help Democrats elect not only more white women, but also an unprecedented number of women of color. Read more>>
Today: The Echoes of Anita Hill
September 18, 2018 by
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation in the Senate is now in limbo, as he and Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor accusing him of a decades-old sexual assault, are set to testify publicly about the allegations Monday. Ford considers the incident an “attempted rape,” while Kavanaugh says, “I have never done anything like what the accuser describes — to her or to anyone.” Read more>>
From Anita Hill To Christine Blasey Ford, The Similarities And Differences
September 18, 2018 by
Professor Christine Blasey Ford came forward on Sunday for the first time telling her story alleging that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually attacked her 35 years ago when the two were both in high school. So how is this different from the sexual harassment allegations made against now Justice Clarence Thomas by law professor Anita Hill in 1991 at his confirmation hearing? Read more>>
Anita Hill has some frank advice for senators investigating the Kavanaugh allegation
September 18, 2018 by
Anita Hill knows a little something about senators, the Supreme Court, and sexual harassment. Before this past weekend, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was on track for a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation vote Thursday. But Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation of sexual assault against Kavanaugh upended the process, and now Kavanaugh and Ford are both scheduled for hearings with the committee next week. Read more>>
Anita Hill: How to Get the Kavanaugh Hearings Right
September 18, 2018 by
The Senate Judiciary Committee has a chance to do better by the country than it did nearly three decades ago.
There is no way to redo 1991, but there are ways to do better.
The facts underlying Christine Blasey Ford’s claim of being sexually assaulted by a young Brett Kavanaugh will continue to be revealed as confirmation proceedings unfold. Yet it’s impossible to miss the parallels between the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing of 2018 and the 1991 confirmation hearing for Justice Clarence Thomas. In 1991, the Senate Judiciary Committee had an opportunity to demonstrate its appreciation for both the seriousness of sexual harassment claims and the need for public confidence in the character of a nominee to the Supreme Court. It failed on both counts. Read more>>
From Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill to #MeToo
March 21, 2018 by
A few weeks ago, New York magazine ushered in Women’s History Month with a cover story on a man. “The Case for Impeaching Clarence Thomas,” by former New York Times editor Jill Abramson, opens with a fresh accusation against the Supreme Court justice. Moira Smith, a lawyer, says that Thomas groped her at a Washington dinner party in 1999.
The road from the Thomas hearings to #MeToo has been long. Yet for those who see the current moment as a watershed, it can be useful to revisit the storm surrounding his confirmation in 1991. Anita Hill’s testimony that he had sexually harassed her divided the country, arousing a fury that even now has not fully played itself out. Her 1997 account of the controversy, “Anita Hill: Speaking Truth to Power,” remains an important touchstone in the literature on harassment. Read more>>
Anita Hill Says Fights Against Racism and Gender Violence Are Inseparable
March 15, 2018 by
About 2,000 people filled the Oakland Marriott Ballroom last Saturday to hear Anita Hill speak about how racism and gender violence are intertwined.
“I will not talk about race, I will not talk about gender—without talking about them both. I’ve lived them both,” she said, “and I would say to every one of you—you live them both, too.” Read more>>
How the Inclusion Rider Came to Be, Thanks to 3 Women
March 10, 2018 by
If you watched this year’s Oscars all the way until best actress was announced, you may have come away scratching your head. “I have two words to leave you with tonight,” Frances McDormand, who won the category for her role in Two Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, said in her speech: “Inclusion. Rider.”
Inclusion riders are brand new and haven’t been widely adopted yet. The idea piggybacks off of the often banal riders that Hollywood stars or their agents insert into their contracts; many actors already request things like a certain number of assistants or fresh flowers in their trailers every day in return for signing on to a movie or show, although some address compensation and other important terms. An inclusion rider uses the same vehicle for something entirely different: It requires an inclusive hiring practice for the project that brings on women, people of color, LGBT people, those with disabilities, and others from marginalized groups. It envisions demanding diversity not just in the on-screen hires, but for the off-screen crew as well. Read more>>
Powerful Hollywood Women Unveil Anti-Harassment Action Plan
January 1, 2018 by
Driven by outrage and a resolve to correct a power imbalance that seemed intractable just months ago, 300 prominent actresses and female agents, writers, directors, producers and entertainment executives have formed an ambitious, sprawling initiative to fight systemic sexual harassment in Hollywood and in blue-collar workplaces nationwide.
The initiative includes:
— A legal defense fund, backed by $13 million in donations, to help less privileged women — like janitors, nurses and workers at farms, factories, restaurants and hotels — protect themselves from sexual misconduct and the fallout from reporting it.
— Legislation to penalize companies that tolerate persistent harassment, and to discourage the use of nondisclosure agreements to silence victims.
— A drive to reach gender parity at studios and talent agencies that has already begun making headway.
— And a request that women walking the red carpet at the Golden Globes speak out and raise awareness by wearing black.
Called Time’s Up, the movement was announced on Monday with an impassioned pledge of support to working-class women in an open letter signed by hundreds of women in show business, many of them A-listers. The letter also ran as a full-page ad in The New York Times, and in La Opinion, a Spanish-language newspaper. Read more>>