Anita Hill motivated a generation of women to enter politics when she testified in televised hearings against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas for sexual harassment in 1991. The following year, a historic number of female politicians were elected to Congress, with their seats in the Senate and House essentially doubling to 6 and 47, respectively. As a result, 1992 is now known as “The Year of the Woman.” The case is credited with raising awareness of workplace sexual harassment, as Thomas was Hill’s Supervisor at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

After being admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 1980, Hill became an Attorney-Adviser to Thomas. When Thomas became chairman of the EEOC in 1982, Hill followed him to be his Assistant, but she left the job shortly thereafter in 1983.

Become a Subscriber

Please purchase a subscription to continue reading this article.

Subscribe Now

Hill moved on to be an Assistant Professor at the Evangelical Christian O. W. Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University. Later, she would join the faculty at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where she was the first Black professor to earn tenure.

Hill was called to publicly testify in 1991 after a private interview by the FBI regarding the allegations was leaked. Despite her incandescent testimony, Thomas was confirmed to the nation’s highest court, and Hill became the subject of public ridicule and insult. The derision forced her to resign from her position at Oklahoma University. She then moved to Brandeis University, where she has taught for more than 25 years.

A documentary focusing on the scandal, “Anita,” was released in 2013, followed in 2016 by the HBO TV movie “Confirmation.”

With the viral spread of the #MeToo movement beginning in 2017 (although the phrase was first used in 2006), Hill’s case was thrust back into the spotlight.

“In the decades following the hearings, [the treatment of sexual harassment] changed. It changed because people started telling their stories, we started filing complaints, we had lawsuits that were filed, and the public became much more aware,” Hill said to The New York Times in 2019.

Hill has also authored the books Speaking Truth to Power, Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race, and Finding Home, and Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence.