The president and chief executive of the Concerned Women for America (CWA) legislative action committee, Penny Nance, believes the Time’s Up movement’s choice of Anita Hill to lead its anti-sexual harassment commission is a poor one.
Along with a group of other conservative women leaders, Nance has requested Hill’s replacement, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In her most recent article on CWA’s website, Nance writes: “The women of Hollywood may have grown up learning about Anita Hill as a heroine, but as we’ve come — all too painfully — to learn, academia and media have painted a picture of her over the past quarter-century that is conveniently divorced from reality.”
Nance, joined by Alveda King, Kay Coles James, Jenny Beth Martin, and Cleta Mitchell, penned a January 25 letter to the Commission for Eliminating Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace.
The letter was addressed to the women who spearheaded the commission’s creation in December — “Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, Nike Foundation Co-Chair Maria Eitel, attorney Nina Shaw, and venture capitalist and activist Freada Kapor Klein,” as the LA Times noted.
In an email to the publication, Nance noted, “Hollywood had the opportunity to own their sin and clean up their mess but instead chose to make political points. That’s disappointing. They should replace Hill.”
The CWA’s primary concern centers not on Hill’s well-known sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas during his nomination process to the Supreme Court. Instead, it highlights Hill’s lesser-known 1998 “Meet the Press” interview with the late Tim Russert, in which she appears to defend former President Bill Clinton’s behavior in the face of accusations of sexual impropriety lodged by Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, and other women.
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In an interestingly timed Twitter moment, Mic published a flattering piece this week showcasing Hill’s “powerful legacy.”
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The Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, administrated by the National Women’s Law Center, has been raising funds via a GoFundMe page started on Dec. 20, 2017. It has received, to date, $19,888,400 worth of tax-deductible donations toward its stated $20 million goal.
The most recent donation as of Tuesday night, the page reports, was from Nicole Kidman in the amount of $100,000.
Michele Blood is a Flemington, New Jersey-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to LifeZette.
(photo credit, homepage image: Charles Ogletree and Anita Hill, CC BY 2.0, by Tim Pierce / Bill Clinton, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore; photo credit, article image: Anita Hill, CC BY 2.0, by Tim Pierce)
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