The law professor who accused U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment says those who question why she waited to report the incident don't understand the nature of being harassed.
"Women are told by their harassers or by others that they won't be believed if they come forward," Anita Hill says in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview to be broadcast Sunday. "And they know of enough other women, where not only were they not believed but they were actually made to be the culprit."Asked if that's what she believes happened to her, Hill said: "Yes, indeed."
"And I think that anyone raising a claim . . . has to understand that there is a great potential for that occurring," she said.
The University of Oklahoma law professor accused Thomas of repeated sexual harassment when the two worked together in the early 1980s. The charges, which became public shortly before the Senate was due to vote on Thomas' nomination, resulted in a weeklong delay of the vote while highly publicized hearings were held.
She said she doesn't think the Senate Judiciary Committee produced "a fair hearing on the issue." She also said she thinks the tone of the hearing would have been different if there was a woman on the panel.
Hill was interviewed Jan. 24 in Oklahoma City, near her Norman, Okla., home.