HOUSTON — If anyone can understand what Christine Blasey Ford went through during her testimony Thursday, it’s Anita Hill.
In 1991, Hill testified that then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her.
Hill was in Houston Friday to speak about the #MeToo movement at the Grace Hopper Celebration, the world’s largest gathering of women in the technology industry.
The event’s moderator called it a “tragic irony” that Hill was scheduled to speak a day after Dr. Ford’s dramatic testimony. Hill was booked long before Ford was scheduled to testify.
Hill said she was impressed with the calm and careful testimony of Ford. She said it must have been especially tough knowing the hostility behind the confirmation hearings.
Like Thomas, Hill believes Kavanaugh will be confirmed but criticized some Senators for trying to rush the vote without a full investigation.
"What I saw was them more concerned about their processes and their structure and their schedule, than the human element of what was going on and what happened 37 years ago,” Hill said.
Hill said one of the things that stood out to her from Kavanaugh's testimony was how emotional and angry he was compared with the "calm" words coming from the woman accusing him of sexual assault when they were teenagers.
Anita Hill - “I had a choice to make 27 years ago. I wanted to do nothing more than retrieve back to my normal life and leave all of that behind and say nasty things about the US senate. I did say nasty things about the US senate but I did not retreat." #AnitaHill #khou11 #GHC18
Hill said Kavanaugh "was able to express a real anger, an aggression, as well as a lot of emotion."
She said no woman nominated to the high court "would ever have the license to express (herself) in that way."
Anna Dai, who attended the event, agreed.
“There’s an expectation about women. You can’t be too bold. You can’t be too emotional. You can’t be angry because people think that women are emotional and that takes us away from being able to do the things that matter,” Dai said.
Pat Rhodes, who remembers the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing, said it is history repeating itself.
“You would have thought that we would’ve made some progress over the years but I encourage her and commend her for taking those steps to be the voice of so many women without a voice," Rhodes said.
Hill challenged her audience not to give up even if Kavanaugh is confirmed and to continue to make their voices heard.
“I had a choice to make 27 years ago. I wanted to do nothing more than retrieve back to my normal life and leave all of that behind and say nasty things about the U.S. Senate,” Hill said. “I did say nasty things about the U.S. Senate, but I did not retreat.”