2018 could be the 'Year of the Woman' on steroids, with growing backlash to the culture of sexual...

The Daily 202: 2018 could be the ‘Year of the Woman’ on steroids, with growing backlash to the culture of sexual harassment

By James Hohmann November 22 at 7:13 AM

THE BIG IDEA: The daily stream of revelations about sexual harassment should be viewed, at least in part, as a belated backlash to Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, which came despite the emergence of the “Access Hollywood” video and several women who accused him of misconduct.

In October 1991, Anita Hill testified during Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearing that he had sexually harassed her when she worked for him at, of all places, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thomas denied wrongdoing, and he got confirmed. The backlash didn’t come until 13 months later.

Women across the country were disgusted by how poorly Hill was treated by lawmakers from both parties, including then-Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Joe Biden. There were only two women in the Senate then. Four were elected to join them in 1992. A historic number of women were also elected to the House — 24, the largest single number elected to the House in any single election. Nationally, 11 women won major party Senate nominations and 106 women were on the ballot for House slots in the general election.

That one high-profile case propelled countless other women to get involved in public service. Now there are dozens of high-profile cases of alleged sexual misconduct, from the U.S. House to state houses and from the military to the media. It stands to reason that this could lead to bigger backlash at the polls in 2018 and 2020 than we saw during what’s known as the Year of the Woman.

The massive women’s marches on the Saturday after Trump’s inauguration were a harbinger of bigger things to come.

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