Anita Hill's Arguments Against Sexual Harassment

Although the issue of women’s rights has attracted international recognition and support, women still face many inequalities and barriers. Gender-based violence and economic discrimination are problems in many parts of the world.

After more than 200 years of living under the United States Constitution and despite all of the progress women have made, they still to this day continue to suffer discrimination in employment, insurance, health care, education, the criminal justice system, social security and pensions, and just about any other area you can name.

The 1970’s began the dawn of sexual harassment law. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, began being utilized by feminists, and lawyers during the 1970’s in order to defend the female victims of these sexual encounters. The challenge for lawyers and activists, such as Catharine MacKinnon and Lin Farley, was to persuade the American judiciary that sexual harassment is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “discrimination on the basis of sex” (Siegel, 2004).

In history most women did not work, men were the breadwinners of the household and women took care of the children, cooked, and cleaned. There were specific expectations of women to listen, be respectful, and be pretty much be obedient to their husband or father when growing up. I was also raised on those old-fashioned values that were, never be outspoken, rude and obnoxious like most boys are. Since those old traditions were carried out for so long and are still upheld in some lives today, this is what started building the barrier that blocks women from being treated

The significance of Lorena Week’s sex discrimination case was that women can use the legal system to achieve for equality. Week’s case led the National Origination for Women to challenge discriminatory laws. Lorena weeks was a single mother of three children living in Wadley, Georgia. She worked as a telephone operator for many years at the Southern Bell Company. As a single mother, Weeks struggled to provide for her family on her low wages. When the position of Switchman opened, Weeks applied for the position. The switchman job had higher wages and since weeks had been with the company for many years she had seniority rights for the position. When Weeks confronted the company, they said the position was reserved for men and didn’t consider

It's not fair the way women have been treated in today's culture and time before ours. The first meeting for the women's rights was held July 19-20 in 1848 so women could be able to vote created by the 19th amendment which “guarantees all American women the right to vote (House of Representatives)”. Strong, confident and forceful women have brought about gender equality and redefined the woman’s place in society; this is illustrated in A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen and in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

Women have virtually the same rights as men. However, the fault needing to be recognized in today’s society is the way that women are treated. Even in simple areas, such as jobs, women are put on the back burner. A woman is able to become a CEO of a company, nonetheless, she will struggle twice as hard as a man would. Even as an employee, women are statistically paid less than men are.

I noticed how women are still treated/looked at as objects. I think it's really annoying how women couldn't speak or even have a say in anything and if they tried to talk they were ignored. “But they had often wound up sitting silent in political meetings or trying to speak and being ignored” (Collins 183). Women are just as helpful as men, if not more helpful and have similar ideas to men so why be rude to them. I think women should be hear and treated equally. This whole situation reminds me of the movie we are currently watching

Thomas believed that blacks were defeating the purpose that they had worked so hard in the past decades to gain. By self-segregating "blacks were turning away from the real world." And so, rather than separating himself from the Black Student Union and their personal corridor, he made a compromise by deciding to live in the corridor, with his white roommate. (Thomas 117, Foskett 99-102) 

Thomas was involved in the political scene at a very early age. After just two short years in Washington, Thomas began working in President Reagan’s administration. Thomas was a rarity in Washington. In the Washington Post Thomas was introduced to the public. The article read, “He is one of the black people now on center stage in American politics: he is a republican, a long-time supporter of Ronald Reagan, opposed to the minimum wage law, rent control, busing and affirmative action.” (Foskett 152) 

For eight-years Thomas served on the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee under Ronald Reagan. (Foskett 161-2) 

On June 30, 1991 President Bush nominated Thomas to the Supreme Court. Similar to all nominees Thomas was sure to be asked many difficult and personal questions. And being a black conservative, and to many liberals and democrats, viewed as a traitor, passing his confirmation hearings and gaining approval from the senate would be no easy task. If that weren’t enough, Anita Hill made matters far more difficult when she accused Thomas of sexual harassment, ten

Women and all people should be treated equally based on their actions. These women have been doing their part too, like “feeding her children properly.” (Doc. C) These women are hard-working and do their part, but are not given nearly enough credit. They need to do other things like keep her basement dr and make her stairway fireproof, but she cannot do this without her rights.

2. Clarence Thomas was accused of sexual harassment and assault by Anita Hill in 1991. Today he is a Judge in the Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. He has been also accused by other women in the 1990s.

Women have been treated very different from the beginning of time. Life before women's rights movements and activists was terrible. Women were discriminated against and looked down on in a very hurtful way. They could not even do the simple like vote or get a quality education because men believed that the only purpose women serve is to be a home body. It is hard for American women in today's society even believe what went on, better yet think that the ways of life back then are still present in some cultures. Slowly things have started to change and women have gotten more rights and overall life has changed drastically in some spots. In America things have changed for the better, however in the more poorer cultures they are at a standstill.

Women have had a rough way to go for many years when it comes to equality. They face many negative things in today’s society and that is the way it has been for many years. History shows that women have been fighting for equality for decades, because many people believe they just can’t do the things that men can. There’s a website that has been helping women fight for that equality since 1966. That website is www.now.org. Before then women never really had any help. They had to rely on each other to show everyone what they could really do. Women have fought to try and end discrimination when it comes to jobs and economic justice. So the status of women throughout history has changed,

The rights and opportunities are different but the feelings in the hearts of those fighting and living to support women’s rights have never changed. Some of the issues women are fighting today are poverty and hunger with the largest number of homeless being women and children. The continuing wage gap and the fact that women make 77 cents to every dollar men do, violence against women, with the staggering statistic that there are 270,000 rapes or sexual assaults a year. Women are treated poorly in prison with 70% subject to rape, extortion, and groping and denied medical resources and treatment, as well as human trafficking and sex slavery, which has a 32 billion dollar annual income. (Top 18 Issues Challenging Women

Although they have been given more rights and equality, women still lack fairness in areas such as education, domestic abuse, crime, and lower class value. Cassandra Clifford states in her article “Are Girls still marginalized? Discrimination and Gender Inequality in Today’s Society”, “Woman and girls are abused by their husbands and fathers, young girls are exploited by sex tourism and trafficking, girls in many countries are forced into arranged marriages at early ages. Twice as many women are illiterate as men, due to the large gap in education, and girls are still less likely to get jobs and excel in the work place than boys.” She describes some of the issues that women face today around the world. These issues are what keep society from coming together to form a better world.