Anita Hill changed everything.

[K8-EEE]

I remember the Anita Hill testimony so well, because during that time I learned a new phrase: "sexual harassment." I was in my 20's and a secretary in an Ad agency, until those hearings I had never heard of sexual harassment. I never heard of it...I JUST LIVED IT!

Although it was the 1980s it was very "Mad Men" attitude and the exex would constantly do stuff like ask you to go get a file in a low cabinet and then say they "enjoyed the view" and that kind of shit. And all the honey baby sweetie shit. Being grossed out by perverted bosses had a name? I thought it was just The Way It Is At Work.

And I learned from the older "gals" (yes that's what we were called) how to fend off advances without "getting in trouble," for instance you could pretend to be engaged or/or fake being uber-religious or whatever.

After Anita Hill, all that started to change. A conversation had begun; stories were told, legislation happened, behaviors started to change, and one day we had a meeting where one of the biggest perps in the firm had to give us all pamphlets about what constitutes sexual harassment and HOW TO REPORT IT. He was very very uncomfortable giving out this material. IT WAS GREAT. It felt like change....and in the subsequent years things really did change!

I think today most corporate environments wouldn't tolerate what used to be routine. My daughters will be working WOMEN....they don't have to be "gals in the office."

Anyway I haven't thought of her for awhile but, thanks Ms. Hill.

[opihimoimoi]

1. KnR :o) Arlen Spector will go down in history as an asshole

[EFerrari]

2. Again!

:rofl:

[aquart]

4. Every man on that panel who opened his idiot self-satisfied mouth will.

I could not believe the crap they were saying. I could not believe they thought I would believe it.

[jgraz]

5. That's one thing that Professor Hill DIDN'T change

Specter had cemented his permanent asshole status long before Anita Hill showed up.

[regnaD kciN]

7. Unfortunately, there's one other thing Anita Hill didn't change...

...Clarence Thomas's lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, where he cast the deciding vote in Bush v. Gore. :-(

[tavalon]

10. It wasn't for lack of trying

She is a good woman.

[tavalon]

11. You mean Arlen "magic bullet" Spector?

Yep, he got himself a place in history but it isn't a very nice one.

[opihimoimoi]

14. What a miserable person he is....how can he sleep at night?

[aquart]

3. Thanks, Ms. Hill.

I did a lot of temp work. A senior veep at Sterling Bank tried to give me to a client as a perk ("Just have drinks, you don't HAVE to sleep with him.") and took my tapdancing refusal (I couldn't, I just couldn't, I was still so desperately in love with my last boss.) in good part except for putting some copies of Playboy in a manilla envelope for me to "study" and insisting I sit in his office while he booked an appointment at New York's top brothel; (How do I know it was Number One? Shortly afterward New York Magazine did an article and I recognized the address.)

Had I said ONE WORD about it, I would never have worked for my agency again. I knew that. That none of the male senators knew that was a profound and awful shock. Of course you can't leave a job for that reason. A competent woman was supposed to be able to creatively duck, dodge, and deflect. And get the job done no matter what. There was no honesty at all.

Because of Anita Hill, I started voting for women. First it was just the drudge job local offices because there were so few women running anywhere else, but I kept voting for women.

[Solly Mack]

6. k/r

[sandnsea]

8. That's true

She certainly doesn't get enough credit for changing the work place for women, or the courage it took to do it.

[tavalon]

9. Many people had forgotten

There are all sorts of women in this world. Anita Hill is what is called a brave and powerful woman. Ginny Thomas is what is called a stupid and petty woman. They both have the same basic stuff between their legs but their hearts and heads couldn't be more different from one another.

[Swamp Rat]

12. k&r

[enough]

13. Thank you K8! I will never forget her nor will I forgetArlen Specter's role in giving us decades of

Clarence Thomas, a very sub-prime Supreme Court "Justice."