How Two Legal Cases Established Sexual Harassment as a Civil Rights Violation

In 1975, a trio of feminist activists in the Human Affairs program at Cornell University wrote a letter describing a painful and familiar story. A mother of two named Carmita Wood had come to them for help. She had left her job of eight years after enduring long-term stalking and molestation by her male boss and was then denied unemployment benefits because she had quit her job “without good cause.” The Cornell women wanted to help her, and they debated different ways to describe what Wood had suffered—a debasement that threatened her economic survival. “Sexual coercion,” “sexual intimidation,” and “sexual blackmail” were all considered, but none had the right ring of seriousness without melodrama. Then it came to them: “sexual harassment.” They coined the term in a letter sent out seeking a lawyer to take the case. Finally, something that had been going on for as long as women had worked alongside men—the abuse of female employees by male bosses—had a name. And that meant it could be fought.