The 27th annual Anita Hill Party will be held Tuesday, Oct. 23, in Columbia, to once again encourage women and men to stand up and speak out for justice and equality.
“I Believe Anita Hill!” is likely South Carolina’s largest networking opportunity for
women. “I Believe Anita Hill!” is also the nation’s oldest continuous remembrance of Hill and
her testimony. In 2016, 750 women and men joined Hill at her third Columbia visit. The networking event celebrated its silver anniversary with her attendance; she also
attended in 1997 and 2011.
Hill electrified the nation in 1991 at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
hearing when she described alleged sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas, her former
supervisor and then a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. At a Congressional hearing, the African-American attorney was grilled aggressively by an all-white, all-male panel. That sparked a nationwide discussion on sexual harassment in the workplace as well as what was called, in 1992, the “Year of the Woman,” when more women than ever before ran for and were elected to Congress.
In 2018, we’re seeing a repeat of Hill’s experience, given that Christine Blasey Ford has accused current Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of a teen-age sexual assault. Anita Hill wrote in The New York Times that it is impossible to miss the parallels between the hearings of 1991 and 2018.
However, Hill also wrote, “Today, the public expects better from our government than we got in 1991, when our representatives performed in ways that gave employers permission to mishandle workplace harassment complaints throughout the following decades.”
In 2018, we’re also seeing a similar surge of female candidates for elective office. On the November ballot will be 182 women running for elective offices who are not incumbents. Twelve – 11 Democrats and one Republican – are favored to win, while 52 are facing competitive races they might win, according to The Washington Post. You can track the candidates at the Center for American Women and Politics.
The 2018 event will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at 701 Whaley Street in Columbia.
Admission is free and open to the public. Valet parking is available and free.
For more information, go to http://anitahillparty.com
Want to talk to prominent S.C. women about Hill and Ford or this “Year of the Woman”? Contact us.
For Immediate Release
Contact: Claudia Smith Brinson, 803-546-1982, or Jan Collins, 803-446-9632
27th Annual ‘I Believe Anita Hill!’
I Believe Anita Hill: Network in Columbia
The 27th annual “I Believe Anita Hill!” networking event will be held Tuesday, October 23, in Columbia, to once again encourage women and men to stand up and speak out for justice and equality. The 82 hosts will promote activism and volunteerism with “Connecting Community,” the second time the event has focused on helping people find the nonprofit they want to support. The hosts, who are S.C. professional women and activists, know that many people want to volunteer but may not know where to turn to make a difference.
The 2018 event will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at 701 Whaley Street in Columbia.
Admission is free and open to the public. Valet parking is available and free.
For more information, go to http://anitahillparty.com
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