The fight to make sexual harassment a crime
Witness History
BBC
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2020
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1986, the US Supreme Court heard a landmark case which would define sexual harassment as a crime in America. The lawsuit, brought by bank clerk Mechelle Vinson, established that abuse in the workplace was a breach of civil rights. It was built on pioneering legal scholarship by feminist lawyer Catharine MacKinnon, who talks to Sharon Hemans.
PHOTO: Mechelle Vinson in 1986 (Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
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| 1:03.4 | Listen on BBC Sounds. You're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service, |
| 1:15.0 | firsthand accounts of events that have shaped our world. |
| 1:18.0 | I'm Sharon Heemans. |
| 1:20.0 | In 1986, the US Supreme Court recognized sexual harassment as a violation of someone's civil rights. |
| 1:28.0 | I've been speaking to feminist lawyer and academic Catherine McKinnon, who worked to shape America's laws on sexual harassment. |
| 1:35.4 | She says it all started when she came across a story in a student woman's newsletter |
| 1:40.4 | about a woman who had quit her job at Cornell University. |
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