Correction appended.

Prof. Anita Hill (Heller) will be the keynote speaker at "Sex, Power and Speaking Truth: Anita Hill 20 Years Later," a 1-day conference in New York City reflecting on the 20th anniversary of the confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and analyzing current challenges facing women and minorities in the workplace.

The conference is being organized by Letty Cottin Pogrebin '59, a feminist activist and founding editor of Ms. Magazine, and Kathleen Peratis P '04, who is a founder of J Street, an advocacy group on Israeli politics, and the chair of the sexual harassment practice group at the New York law firm Outten and Golden LLP.

The Women and Gender Studies Program is one of the event's cosponsors.

Hill stated that the conference would focus on the progress that women have made in the workplace since 1991, and what can be achieved in the near future. "A lot has happened since then in terms of women's political advancement, women in the workplace, a lot of [sexual harassment] policies have been made," she said in an interview with the Justice.

"We've had a chance really as a society to look at the issue of sexual harassment and really try to understand it, that kind of behavior and the harm that it does."

The conference "represents a chance for a lot of really smart people to think not only about what the last 20 years have meant, but what we need to do to keep moving forward on issues, on gender equality as well as racial equality," Hill said.

Speakers at the event will include feminist author Gloria Steinem, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree and New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter.

In an interview with the Justice, Peratis said she seeks to use the confirmation hearings as a teachable moment. "I hope to introduce a whole new generation of young people, young women in particular, but young men also, to the drama and the transformational moment that older women like me experienced 20 years ago," said Peratis. "There was before Anita Hill, and there was after Anita Hill. So I'd like younger people to kind of get in touch with how significant this was in making their world."

Hill said the conference wouldn't be focused on the confirmation hearings. "We need to understand what the event was, and people need to have a good picture of that, but the program is designed for us to really look forward, to look at the present and the future," she said.

Pogrebin expressed in an interview with the Justice a desire for Hill to "join the pantheon of our heroes," and praised her for maintaining grace and dignity during the 1991 confirmation hearings. She said she hopes this conference will spur a younger generation to act in solidarity and organize for an issue, such as equal pay or sexual harassment of restaurant workers.

Pogrebin said that Brandeis inspired her passion for activism. "I was raised to be a girl until I got to Brandeis, … where I was taken seriously as a person with an intellect and opinions."

She said Former Profs. Abraham Maslow (PSYC) and Max Lerner (AMST), classmate Abbie Hoffman '59 and former University President Abram Sachar were major influences in her life.

Pogrebin explained that her activism is "part of the heritage that was inculcated in me about Justice Brandeis, about the Jewish ethical imperative, about the ethos of not standing by when things are wrong."

Peratis similarly cited Judaism and its "values of justice and loving kindness and the responsibility to pursue them" as the source of her dedication to helping other people.

The conference will be held on Saturday, Oct. 15, at Hunter College in New York City. Hunter College was chosen as the site for the conference because a similar conference was held there in April 1992, according to Pogrebin.  

Correction: Kathleen Peratis P '04 is the parent of an alumnus, not an alumnus herself as originated noted.