Anita Hill worries female 2020 candidates are 'not being taken seriously'

“And I think if we don’t take them seriously as presidential candidates, we are not going to hear those voices,” she said Tuesday night in an interview. “And that would be a tragedy.”

Hill’s testimony in the Thomas hearings has led to questions this year about the Democratic front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, and criticisms that he allowed Hill to be treated harshly.

More than a quarter-century later, Hill said she finds it “really, deeply troubling” that several of the female 2020 candidates have been discussed as vice presidential material. Both Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost the race for Georgia governor last year, have been mentioned as possible running mates for Biden over the past few months. The Biden campaign team has been adamant that the speculation does not come from them.

Harris, a presidential candidate, has laughed off the idea, saying last week, “I think that Joe Biden would be a great running mate.” Abrams, who has not yet decided whether she will run, has said, “you don’t run for second place.” Abrams’ former campaign manager also said in March that “there was no grand plan hatched” about a joint ticket with Biden.

Other male candidates, including Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman, have suggested that they would pick a woman as their vice presidential candidate if they won the nomination.

Asked whether she was directing her comments at Biden, Hill replied: “I don’t know that it’s just him. I think that that presumption about women as vice presidential choices is not just about Joe Biden specifically, it’s about Joe Biden as the front-runner.”

Asked if she personally considers Biden the front-runner, she replied, “He’s leading in the polls.”

Biden spoke with Hill by telephone shortly before he announced his presidential bid, expressing regret for “what she endured” and detailing his admiration for her, his campaign said at the time. But Hill told The New York Times last month that she was unsatisfied with his message.

“I cannot be satisfied by simply saying, ‘I’m sorry for what happened to you,’” she said at the time. “I will be satisfied when I know that there is real change and real accountability and real purpose.”

Asked on Tuesday what progress she had seen on that front, Hill stressed that she wanted to see all of the candidates support victims of sexual harassment and assault.

“I don’t know that the Biden campaign is addressing the issue directly, so I can’t say I’ve seen any,” she said. “I’m not even saying that Biden has to be the one to do it, or the only one to do it. I would really like to see all of the candidates address this issue.”

Biden, for his part, has been heavily involved in an anti-campus sexual assault program called It’s on Us, and he played a leading role in shepherding the passage of the Violence Against Women Act. He continues to discuss the importance of those issues on the campaign trail. But Hill, who called the Violence Against Women Act “wonderful” and “so important,” said there was more work to do.

Hill spoke to The Times on Tuesday before the before the PEN America Literary Gala and Free Expression Awards in New York, where she was presented with an award. At the gala, she reflected on her appearance before the Senate committee.

“In 1991, under the glare of intense political and media scrutiny, I shared more of what it is — the whole experience, the entirety of the experience of being a woman,” she said. “But I was also sharing the experience of what it’s like to be black. And finally, to be a black woman facing sexual harassment.”

She went on to stress that, given the chance to testify all over again, she would.

“I, today, am here to say that I have my voice,” she said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.