Anita Hill
Accomplished lawyer and academic Anita Hill, whose courage has inspired generations, is renowned for her work with civil and women’s rights, in pursuit of social justice, and to combat sexual harassment. Her voice has been prominent in academia, politics, and the media regarding gender, race, and equality; the Washington Post has called her a “leading face” of the ongoing #MeToo movement. In 1991, Hill was in the national spotlight as she testified during the confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, during which she accused Thomas of sexual harassment. Her books Speaking Truth to Power (1997) and Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race, and Finding Home (2011) chronicle her experiences as well as her intersectional approach to feminism in the 21st century. Hill is currently a university professor of social policy, law, and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Brandeis University and a faculty member of its Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
Hill believes women should approach all people with the desire to understand the context of their lives, not what happened to them in a single moment.
Campus activism, Hill says, was one of the catalysts for what became the #MeToo movement.
Hill reminds women that they already have many superpowers to use as they craft their futures.
Now more than ever, Hill says, there is space for different, authentic voices to emerge as long as they are “strong and clear.”
Hill says, the 1991 Senate hearings “shaped who she was and what she could do in the world.”