Transcript: ‘Why Hasn’t Sexual Harassment Disappeared?’

ARCHIVAL (ABC, NIGHTLINE, 10-11-17):
JUJU CHANG: Harvey Weinstein stands accused of decades of sexual harassment.

ARCHIVAL (CBS, CBS THIS MORNING, 9-19-17):
CHARLIE ROSE: A discrimination trial. It was against Silicon Valley venture capitalist…

ARCHIVAL (CNBC, 9-13-17):
NEWS REPORT: The worst kind of frat house behavior…

ARCHIVAL (NBC, NIGHTLY NEWS, 7-16-17):
MEGYN KELLY: How many of you here have experienced what you consider to be sexual harassment?

NARRATION: More women are coming forward. But there was a time when no one even knew what to call sexual harassment on the job.

ARCHIVAL (YOUTUBE):
WOMAN: If you think I deserve a raise, I’d rather talk about it now not at dinner.

NARRATION: From naming it in the 70s…

LIN FARLEY: I was going, “Oh my God. This is an issue.”

NARRATION:…to bringing it into the open in the 90s..

ANITA HILL: It seemed so regular.

NARRATION:…to holding people accountable today…

ARCHIVAL (CNN, 10-9-17):
BILL WEIR: Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein fired from the studio bearing his name.

GRETCHEN CARLSON: We’re going to see a lot more coming out about this issue.

NARRATION:…the evolution of sexual harassment in the workplace.

ARCHIVAL (1981):
MEN IN WORKPLACE SETTING TO WOMAN: Hey baby, you know you fill out that shirt, c’mon, wow.

TEXT ON SCREEN: 1974

NARRATION: In the 1970s, the American workplace was changing. Baby Boomers were entering the labor force in large numbers, and many were women. The cultural impact of that was just beginning to play out. Lin Farley was teaching a class at the time at Cornell University.

LIN FARLEY (AUTHOR, “SEXUAL SHAKEDOWN”): Women and work. That’s what it was called! Women and work!

NARRATION: She did a consciousness raising session with the students, and discovered that every young woman had been forced out of a job or fired after rejecting the sexual advances of a male boss.

LIN FARLEY: I just thought, my God, you know, it can’t just be this group of kids. This is major. I kept thinking, we’ve got to come up with a name. And the best I could come up with was sexual harassment of women on the job.

ARCHIVAL (ABC, 2-12-71):
WOMAN: Leaned over looked me in my eyes and said: “You’re going to screw me or be canned.”

NARRATION: Farley wrote “Sexual Shakedown” and introduced the idea to the public.

ARCHIVAL (1980):
ED ASNER: She’s the person who first used the phrase sexual harassment to describe the experience of working women.

NARRATION: Ed Asner narrated the documentary.

ARCHIVAL (1980):
ED ASNER: It’s clear that many men are threatened and confused by the presence of women in their work environment.
MAN 1: Is the line established by you, or is the line established by the woman? Or what?
MAN 2: Oh God, It’s really hard, I don’t know….

NARRATION: Farley testified at a New York State hearing on human rights.

LIN FARLEY: I was going to talk about something seriously that had heretofore had been a joke in the culture. I remember thinking, well, they’ll either laugh or they won’t. And to my immense relief, Eleanor Holmes Norton took it very seriously.

NARRATION: Eleanor Holmes Norton, a civil rights advocate, became the first woman to head the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – the federal agency that polices workplace discrimination.

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON (D.C. DELEGATE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES): I was anxious to grab hold of this issue and assert, the commission assert, itself.

NARRATION: She crafted the first set of guidelines to define sexual harassment in the workplace.

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON: I felt it very important, fair to women to understand that they can be just as proactive by bringing complaints, but also fair to employers… to use my authority as a regulator to say what is sexual harassment.

NARRATION: The issue was gaining traction in the culture.

ARCHIVAL (MOVIE CLIP, “FROM 9 TO 5”):
DOLLY PARTON: I put up with all your pinchin’ and starin’ and chasin’ me around the desk because I need this job, but this is the last straw!

NARRATION: In 1986, the Supreme Court weighed in and made a landmark ruling.

ARCHIVAL (ABC, 6-19-86):
PETER JENNINGS: A very clear victory for working women. The court says that sexual harassment in the workplace is a form of discrimination and therefore against the law.

NARRATION: It validated Norton and Farley’s efforts, and put businesses on notice.

ARCHIVAL (ABC, 6-19-86):
TIM O’BRIEN: It indirectly requires employers to ensure an atmosphere that is not conducive to sexual harassment, and warns them that should they fail, they may be held legally accountable.

LIN FARLEY: There’s now a way to talk about a hostile work environment, where there wasn’t before, for women. And there is a way for women to get redress. We have the tools, we have the information, and it still goes on – women are still intimidated. And that’s frustrating.

TEXT ON SCREEN: 1991

ARCHIVAL (C-SPAN, 10-12-91):
SENATOR JOE BIDEN: Stand and be sworn if you will. Professor do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God.
ANITA HILL: I do.

NARRATION: In 1991, the nation was riveted…

ARCHIVAL (C-SPAN, 10-12-91):
ANITA HILL: My name is Anita F. Hill.

NARRATION: …when a University of Oklahoma law professor was reluctantly thrust into the spotlight.

ARCHIVAL (CBS, 10-6-91):
PAULA ZAHN: Clarence Thomas ran into trouble today in what had seemed to be certain confirmation as a Supreme Court justice.

NARRATION: Information that Anita Hill had given confidentially to a Senate aide had been leaked about the sexual harassment she said she had endured years earlier, as an employee of Thomas’s at the E.E.O.C.

ARCHIVAL (CBS, 10-7-91):
RITA BRAVER: Thomas categorically denies the charges.

NARRATION: Hill was attacked from the onset by Thomas’s supporters, who accused her of bringing sleaze into the Supreme Court nomination process.

ARCHIVAL (CBS, 10-6-91):
JOHN DANFORTH (U.S. SENATOR, 1976-1995): I think that this is something contrary to the values of most of our people.

ARCHIVAL (CBS, EVENING NEWS, 10-7-91):
ANITA HILL: Reliving this experience….

NARRATION: She insisted the information was relevant to Thomas’s fitness for the job, and wasn’t looking for publicity.

ARCHIVAL (CBS, EVENING NEWS, 10-7-91):
ANITA HILL: …it has been really bad for me. I mean, it–I can’t even describe. It was bad enough to experience it once.

NARRATION: The Senate judiciary committee called on Hill to testify before the nation on live TV.

ARCHIVAL (C-SPAN, 10-12-91):
ANITA HILL: My working relationship became even more strained when judge Thomas began to use work situations to discuss sex. And he also spoke on some occasions of the pleasures he had given to women with oral sex.

ARCHIVAL (ABC, 10-14-91):
JUDGE CLARENCE THOMAS: I find it particularly troubling that she never raised any hint that she was uncomfortable.

ARCHIVAL (ABC, 10-14-91):
ANITA HILL: I told him that I did not want to talk about these subjects.

ANITA HILL (PROFESSOR, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY): One of the things about my testimony, I believe, that resonated so much with women was that it seemed so regular, so much like what was going on in their day-to-day lives.

ARCHIVAL (C-SPAN, 10-12-91):
ANITA HILL: He said, that if I ever told anyone of his behavior that it would ruin his career.

ARCHIVAL (C-SPAN, 10-12-91):
ARLEN SPECTER: How reliable is your testimony?

ARCHIVAL (C-SPAN, 10-12-91):
ANITA HILL: There is no motivation that would show that I would make up something like this.

ARCHIVAL (C-SPAN, 10-12-91):
ALAN SIMPSON: Why in God’s name would you ever speak to a man like that the rest of your life?

ANITA HILL: People in power are often the ones who actually exhibit the worst behavior and they’re setting the tone for others in their workplaces that women are not to be valued, that’s the real tragedy.

NARRATION: The hearings had become a referendum on sexual harassment in the workplace.

ARCHIVAL (ABC, THIS WEEK WITH DAVID BRINKLEY, 10-13-91):
DAVID BRINKLEY: Judge Thomas and Anita Hill told precisely opposite stories under oath. Which one lied?

NARRATION: Despite Hill’s testimony, Thomas was confirmed to the bench.

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON: I think both her testimony and Thomas’s ability to overcome it before an all male Senate panel got to women.

NARRATION: Women responded by filing twice as many sexual harassment complaints to the EEOC over the next few years, even though Hill’s experience demonstrated the cost of going public.

ANITA HILL: We’ve thought that, oh, well, we put laws in place and therefore, it’s a legal issue and the law will take care of it. This is more than just a legal problem, we’ve got cultural problem that accepts the debasement of women.

TEXT ON SCREEN: TODAY

ARCHIVAL (NEW YORKER AUDIO TAPES):
HARVEY WEINSTEIN: Please come in, I’m everything, I’m a famous guy.
AMBRA BATTILANA GUTIEREZ: I’m feeling very uncomfortable right now. HARVEY WEINSTEIN: Please come in now.

ARCHIVAL (CBS, EVENING NEWS, 10-5-17):
ANTHONY MASON: One of Hollywood’s biggest names, producer and studio executive Harvey Weinstein is accused of sexually harassing female employees and actors for decades.

NARRATION: Today, some accused sexual harassers are facing new consequences.

ARCHIVAL (CNN, 10-9-17):
BILL WEIR: Weinstein fired.

ARCHIVAL (ABC, 10-13-17):
ANCHOR: The head of Amazon studios has been suspended.

ARCHIVAL (CNB, 9-13-17):
ANCHOR: CEO Mike Cagney stepping down.

NARRATION: One of the first titans to fall was Roger Ailes… who seemed invincible.

ARCHIVAL (CBS, 7-8-16):
MAURICE DUBOIS: Gretchen Carlson is suing the man who hired her and fired her from Fox News – suing him for sexual harassment.

NARRATION: Going public with a sexual harassment claim meant risking an avalanche of public criticism and a tarnished career.

GRETCHEN CARLSON (FOX NEWS HOST, 2005-2016): I had no idea what to expect. When I jumped off the cliff on July 6, 2016 I had no idea what was below.

NARRATION: To her surprise, Ailes was ousted, Fox paid Carlson a $20 million settlement, and issued a rare apology. And that was just the beginning. More women started coming forward.

ARCHIVAL (ABC, 4-20-17):
REBECCA JARVIS: The king of cable news dethroned, Bill O’Reilly, out at Fox News.

ARCHIVAL (NBC, 6-6-17):
JO LING KENT: At least twenty terminations at Uber after a law firm investigated 215 claims of sexual harassment, bullying and inappropriate workplace behavior.

GRETCHEN CARLSON: It’s always more difficult when the sexual harassers are in higher positions of power.

NARRATION: Today, when sexual harassment allegations become public, the outcry is so intense that some corporations are forced to take action.

ANITA HILL: Getting rid of the problem is better for the business. Some of the scrutiny now is starting to show that, you know, the business is just better off taking it on. And eliminating it instead of trying to cover it up.

NARRATION: One way that many companies “cover up” problems is by forcing employees to resolve disputes privately, not in court.

GRETCHEN CARLSON: We really aren’t helping push society forward because nobody’s hearing about these cases. It’s a secret proceeding. So, many times – well, almost all times, society does not find out how prevalent sexual harassment is in the workplace.

NARRATION: Also, when a victim is paid a settlement, as Carlson was, it normally comes with the condition that they can’t talk about the experience. Those non-disclosure agreements suppressed decades of sexual harassment claims against the former head of the Weinstein Company.

ARCHIVAL (CBS, THIS MORNING, 10-6-17):
JODI KANTOR: The women who have these stories in many cases were not allowed to speak publicly about them.

NARRATION: Now, more revelations are coming to light.

ARCHIVAL (ABC, 10-10-17):
MEGAN TWOHEY: There’s an unprecedented public conversation and concern about sexual harassment going on in this country.

NARRATION: And while some early crusaders are frustrated about the pace of change…

LIN FARLEY: Why hasn’t sexual harassment disappeared?

NARRATION: Anita Hill says progress is measured in decades, not days.

ANITA HILL: We have to remember where we started on this, we are building, not only on the conversation from 1991, but the conversation that started in the 1970’s and early ‘80s. But it’s not a dialogue that’s going to be concluded and wrapped up in a very short period of time.

(END)