Crackdown on Sexual Harassment

The nation's sensitivity to sexual harassment has changed profoundly since October 1991, when Anita Hill's harassment charges against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas riveted Americans to their TV sets. Sexual harassment claims filed with the federal government have increased dramatically, as have damages paid to successful plaintiffs. Some critics sympathetic to business say the nation has overreacted. They attack several recent multimillion-dollar jury awards as excessive punishments for what they claim is nothing more than crude sexual joking at work. Women's-rights activists respond that sexual harassment is often emotionally devastating, and that only a tiny proportion of the women who have been harassed ever file formal complaints, though harassment is a widespread problem in the workplace.