Thank you, Anita Hill
by Elouise
In October 1991 I listened to your courageous testimony about Clarence Thomas. Your words took me back to my first boss. It was 1960. I’d just graduated from high school and was now a clerk in a bankruptcy court. We called the boss ‘Judge,’ though he was actually a referee in bankruptcy. He’d held this governmental appointment for years. He was about 60 years old; I was 16.
By 1991 I’d told only my husband the truth about my first boss. From the beginning, the Judge was on a mission to take me down a notch or two by way of sexual innuendo and outright inappropriate behavior toward me. He knew I was under-age, that my father was an ordained minister, and that I was a Christian. He said he was a Christian, too, and reminded me from time to time of his church membership.
I didn’t know what hit me. I got through three summers plus one full year, thanks to the friendship of other women working in the office, and the kindness of a few male attorneys who knew the Judge and witnessed some of his behavior toward me.
Back then the term ‘sexual harassment’ hadn’t been invented, or connected to Abuse of Power as an issue in the workplace. In addition, my childhood home where I still lived didn’t offer a safe place to talk about anything related to sex.
Flash forward to October 1991, and your testimony before the Senate Committee. I owe you a huge debt of gratitude for at least two things.
- First, your personal account was the first I’d ever heard from a professional woman talking about repeated sexual innuendo and inappropriate behavior in the work place.
- Second, your courage gave me courage to begin talking about this without fear or shame.
I’m sad this happened to you. I’m sad things happened to me. I’m sad things like this still happen every day to others.
Am I angry? Yes, I am. Angry that even in today’s reports from powerful women about powerful men, we’re still using the language of “if this is true.” Which conveniently overlooks the power imbalance that was in place when the alleged behavior happened. To say nothing of optics and the appearance of evil that seems now to be embraced, not avoided. Embraced, and laughed at in a zillion cartoonish ways.
We are not the world’s latest sleazy entertainment opportunity. We are women with every right to stand up and tell the truth about what happened and didn’t happen to us. And why it must stop now if we’re ever to be Great. Not again, but for the first time ever.
May God grant us serenity to accept what we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Thank you for showing me how this is done. Not just then, but throughout your professional career.
Respectfully,
Elouise Renich Fraser
For a 2016 PBS News Hour video discussion between Gwen Ifill and Anita Hill, click here. It’s outstanding.
©Elouise Renich Fraser, 13 November 2017
Photo found at gq.com
Telling the Truth 
I recall that Anita Hill received very wide coverage here in Australia. We had the same problems here probably on a lesser scale; as Australian women by and large have always been treated with great respect by the vast majority of men.
I suppose I’m really speaking of the WASP(Poms) men.
It apparently has much to do with the respect that the convict women gained from their fellow male convicts back in the late 18th century and early 19th when they shared the unimaginable deprivations.
And they rose and towered above every hardship instilling respect and admiration for women, and were revered almost as saints and still are even unto this time by the men of British heritage. I suppose that’s racist but it holds true!
Hopefully when my ElBob The Peripatetic Pom pages really get under way I shall be spending time with some of these magnificent women.
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Thanks for your comments about the way women are treated in Australia. It rings true to my own observations of women in Australian or even BBC productions. I have no doubt our ‘pioneer’ women were tough. As are many women in the US. Which makes it especially egregious that we are not present, heard, or often not respected as full human beings by way too many men of power. It sickens my heart to see how far behind we are when it comes to the dignity, rights and full participation of women in all places of power. Anita Hill was still is a champion. A woman with true grit! 🙂 Can’t wait to see what you do with your posts!
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If you look at the Australian currency Banknotes, the women are well represented. 5 men and 5 women excluding the Queen, (we’re still Colonials at heart) 2 are on the obverse, One is a convict woman who set up a pub, if I remember rightly; Mary Reiby, we have a street /place named for her, it’s where she had her premises. Many places are named for women here.
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