October 2011 marks the 20 year anniversary of the highest profile sexual harassment story in American history (arguably). In late 1991, Supreme Court Nominee Clarence Thomas endured a blistering battle at his confirmation hearing, after a 35-year old law professor, Anita Hill, accused her ex-boss of harassing her on numerous occasions - while Thomas was working as the Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), no less!
An article published on the NPR website last week, "Thomas confirmation hearings had ripple effect," summarized the sharp and caustic atmosphere of confirmation hearings: "Hill described how her one-time boss pressured her to go out with him and how he subjected her to sexually explicit conversations when the two were alone in the office. "He spoke about acts that he had seen in pornographic films involving such matters as women having sex with animals, and films showing group sex or rape scenes," Hill testified. Porn films with names like Long Dong Silver were for the first time the fare of a confirmation hearing. In one of the iconic moments of the hearing, Hill described how Thomas had looked at a Coke can from which he was drinking and asked, "who has put pubic hair on my Coke?""
After Hill testified, Thomas responded with characteristic fury, categorically denying Hill's account and even accusing the (all-white) committee of engaging in a "high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves."
All told, the hearings lasted over three days. They were parodied by shows like Saturday Night Live. Thomas survived the contentious battle to get confirmed by a margin of 52 to 48 - the narrowest margin in 100 years.
Many who followed the case believed that Thomas got away with something he certainly shouldn't have gotten away with. But advocates of victims of sexual harassment in some ways "got the last laugh." The enormous publicity generated by the confirmation hearings brought the issue of workplace harassment into public focus. Here is an astounding statistic from the NPR article: "in the year after the hearings, the number of sexual harassment claims filed with the EEOC nearly doubled, then tripled by 1997 and kept growing until 2001."
Other statistics show similar spikes in female employment gains. For instance, 20 years ago, the U.S. had only two female senators. Following the Thomas-Hill hearings, 5 more women were elected - out of nearly a dozen who secured nominations from major parties for Senate runs.
Did the change in attitude - and the increase in female empowerment - simply coincide with the Thomas-Hill hearings? Or did the hearings themselves serve as a kind of pivot point for our national consciousness? Historians will have to delve deep and judge. But the legacy of that bitter but powerful battle certainly remains with us.
And although workplace harassment, wage and hour violations, employment discrimination, and retaliation still cause trouble and heartache for workers across the nation, attitudes have undoubtedly shifted for the better.
If you or someone you care about needs help with an issue - be it sexual harassment or any other workplace issue - connect with the team at Joseph, Herzfeld, Hester & Kirschenbaum at 866-348-7394 or www.jhllp.com.
