Speaking Truth to Power - Anita Hill [148]
Prior to the incident, Doucette received commendations and bonuses for her performance as an agent, but afterward she was told that her evaluations would improve if she learned to get along with her male colleagues better. She filed a complaint which met with classic institutional denial. Her evaluations fell to “below acceptable.” Once considered a bright, up-and-coming member of the force, she was ostracized.
Doucette’s testimony about the harassment before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs resulted in her being placed on administrative leave without pay. She later left the force and pursued her complaint in court. She, too, abandoned her dream of service and she had to sell her home to finance her lawsuit. Yet she continued to pursue the claim not simply for her sake but for her two daughters, who adore and support her. She wants to be an example for them—to make the world better for them.
Winning a suit against the FBI may be as difficult as filing a complaint with the navy. The FBI is considered worldwide to be one of the premiere law enforcement agencies. It was venerated in a television series which ran during the 1960s and 1970s. Until the death of J. Edgar Hoover, its long-reigning chief, in 1972, the bureau refused to hire women as agents. As such, the FBI represents the classic paradigm of an institution where sexual harassment is likely to occur—a hierarchical organization which is historically male-dominated. Doucette’s was not the only complaint about harassment. She was one of the few to go public with her complaint. Afterward, she said, other women started telling about their experiences in the agency. Yet it took on the average over a year for the agency to investigate and process complaints about the behavior.
The FBI, under the direction of Louis Freeh, settled the Doucette suit, and it settled sexual harassment claims raised by other female agents. In the case of two agents in California, a harassing supervisor was dismissed. Suzanne Doucette’s supervisor is now retired. The two California agents remained with the bureau. Suzanne Doucette resigned, under pressure, before suing the agency.
Inescapable is the irony that the agency embroiled in its own claims of harassment and retaliation was the same agency charged with investigating my statement to the Senate. Inexperience with investigations and resistance to the validity of sexual harassment charges appears to be part of the workplace culture of the FBI. Perhaps this explains in part why the agency went along with the order to attempt to contradict my testimony despite contrary practices and procedures.
Soon after the Supreme Court adjourned for its October 1991 term, it heard arguments in Christine Franklin’s lawsuit against her school. Ms. Franklin was a high school student who claimed that, from the time she was in the tenth grade, one of her teachers continually harassed her. The record shows that Franklin complained that he “forcibly kissed her on the mouth in the school parking lot,” “asked her about her sexual experience with her boyfriend and whether she would consider having sexual intercourse with an older man,” “telephoned her at home and asked her to meet him socially,” and, finally, one day “took her to a private office [at the school] where he subjected her to coercive intercourse.” The school system took no action.
Later the Association of American University Women and the Center for Research on Women would inform us through studies that sexual harassment is prevalent in high schools and junior high schools. Moreover, the studies would reveal that many times, in fact more times than not, schools did nothing about the behavior.
Christine Franklin’s lawsuit before the Supreme Court was about damages. The trial court concluded that she could not sue for them under Title IX (the statute which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in the schools). The Bush administration had filed