Harris-Perry Laments Society's Silencing of Women

UPDATED: March 31, 2016, at 5:45 p.m.

Drawing on recent narratives like that of the water crisis in Flint, Mich., renowned activist, television host, and Wake Forest University professor Melissa V. Harris-Perry lamented the way society silences the voices of women at a lecture Monday.

Melissa Harris-Perry, a professor at Wake Forest University, speaks at the Agassiz Theatre for the fourth annual Anita Hill Lecture on Gender Justice. Her talk proposed 10 hypotheses regarding the work women do in the modern economy. By Savannah I. Whaley

More than a hundred attendees crowded into the Agassiz Theater for the fourth annual Anita Hill Lecture on Gender Justice as Harris-Perry discussed the role of the modern woman in the context of current events and history.

Harris-Perry said the public sphere often neglects the opinions of women.

“If we don’t think women know anything, then when women tell us things, we won’t believe them. LeeAnne Walters knew that the water in Flint was bad almost two years before anyone did anything about it,” Harris-Perry said, referring to a Flint resident who pushed early on for a government response to the city’s stark decline in water quality. “It was not until the brave Virginia Tech boys came in when we finally had empirical evidence that fit the story and got people moving.”

The lecture series was inspired by Anita F. Hill, currently a professor at Brandeis University, who rose to public prominence in 1991 after she accused U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment as he was being vetted for the position by the U.S. Senate. The lecture series was created on the 20th anniversary of the controversy to highlight the activism that resulted from Hill’s testimonies.

Naisha Bradley, director of the Harvard College Women’s Center, which sponsored the event, lauded Hill for sparking a national conversation on sexual harassment in the workplace.

“Nearly 25 years ago, Anita Hill blazed a trail in unsettled terrain,” Bradley said. “Anita spoke up when it was easier to remain silent, sparking a national debate about sexual harassment.”

Harris-Perry also referenced the Thomas controversy and urged the audience to question how the events would have been shaped differently had Hill not been a woman.

“What if instead we had an actual set of hearings that took seriously the possibility of sexual harassment, took seriously the possibility of the practices and actions of Justice Thomas and, maybe most importantly,” she said to a cheering crowd, “had allowed a black woman on a public stage, speaking about her own experience, to be taken seriously in the U.S. Senate?”

At the conclusion of the lecture, Harris-Perry was met with a standing ovation. Attendee Erin M. McGrath said she was inspired by the lecture.