Last month, Joe Biden called me to talk about his conduct during Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991. There has been a lot of discussion recently about whether he has offered me the right words. Given the #MeToo movement and Mr. Biden’s bid for the presidency, it’s understandable why his role in the hearings is being debated anew.

If the Senate Judiciary Committee, led then by Mr. Biden, had done its job and held a hearing that showed that its members understood the seriousness of sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence, the cultural shift we saw in 2017 after #MeToo might have began in 1991 — with the support of the government.

If the government had shown that it would treat survivors with dignity and listen to women, it could have had a ripple effect. People agitating for change would have been operating from a position of strength. It could have given institutions like the military, the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission greater license to take more decisive action to end the scourge of harassment. And research shows that if leaders convey that they won’t tolerate harassment, people within an organization typically obey.

Instead, far too many survivors kept their stories hidden for years.

Thousands of women and many men have shared with me their stories of being sexually harassed since my testimony 28 years ago. These stories are especially troubling because they are so common. Yet they had long gone unseen, with the public viewing behavior from sexual extortion to sexual assault as a personal issue to be dealt with in private.

The world didn’t really begin to come to grips with the prevalence of sexual abuse until 2017, when the millions of survivors who became the #MeToo movement demolished the myth that sexual violence was insignificant.

The #MeToo movement taught us that it happens to people of all ages, races and ethnicities, whether poor, middle class or wealthy. While no group is immune, some groups like women of color, sexual minorities and people with disabilities are more susceptible than others. So are contract and gig-economy workers, who lack traditional employment protections. Low-income and tip workers, who might face retaliation that could mean losing their livelihood, are particularly at risk.

As the #MeToo revelations laid bare the truth of the overwhelming size of the problem, victims dared hope that our political leaders would take up the challenge of confronting it.

But that hope was dashed last year.

Christine Blasey Ford faced yet another Senate Judiciary Committee in 2018 considering yet another Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, whom she had accused of sexual assault. And yet again, the process appeared to be concerned with political expediency more than with the truth.

After Dr. Blasey’s courageous testimony, many saw the callous and ham-handed approach of Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the committee’s chairman, as a replay of the Thomas hearings.

Even worse, a new generation was forced to conclude that politics trumped a basic and essential expectation: that claims of sexual abuse would be taken seriously.

Bad behavior has not gone away, notwithstanding the valiant efforts of the people in the #MeToo movement. A recent anonymous survey by the Department of Defense revealed that sexual harassment and assault in the military rose by 38 percent from 2016 to 2018. The Pentagon estimated that 13,000 women and 7,500 men were sexually assaulted in the 2018 fiscal year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one in three women and one in four men experience sexual violence involving physical contact during their lifetimes. And according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claims of sexual harassment increased by more than 12 percent from fiscal year 2017 to 2018.

It is no stretch to estimate that one in three American households are dealing with the economic, health or safety difficulties that accompany sexual violations.

Despite the grim reality, I remain hopeful, knowing how far we’ve come. If we acknowledge the severity of the problem and demand processes in which all sexual harassment and assault survivors are heard and not dismissed or punished for coming forward, our leaders will step up.

Survivors and their supporters need acknowledgment and justice. Words of condolence can never substitute for action aimed at ending the harm. There are measures that would show that our government is ready to respond to survivors.

The Senate leaders should adopt a fair and transparent process for responding to complaints raised about prospective presidential appointees with investigations conducted by an independent party.

Congress also should pass bills like the Be Heard Act, introduced in April, which would extend federal protections against sexual harassment and discrimination to contract, gig and other nontraditional workers, with special attention to low-income workers.

At a minimum, our representatives have to keep our military personnel, who pledge to protect our country, safe from sexual harassment and assault. Hard stop.

In the long term, our leaders need to address the larger inequalities that enable sexual misconduct to flourish.

Sexual violence is a national crisis that requires a national solution. We miss that point if we end the discussion at whether I should forgive Mr. Biden. This crisis calls for all leaders to step up and say: “The healing from sexual violence must begin now. I will take up that challenge.”

Anita Hill is a professor of social policy, law and women’s and gender studies at Brandeis University.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: [email protected].

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

Source: Read Full Article