by Alba Conte

About the author: Alba Conte is a legal consultant and author of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Law and Practice.

The concept of sexual harassment as sex discrimination spent a decade earning judicial acceptance before the U.S. Supreme Court announced its first relevant ruling in Vinson v. Meritor Savings Bank in 1986. It took another five years and a contracts professor named Anita Hill to finally catapult the issue into the public arena. [Hill testified that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her. Despite the allegations, Thomas was confirmed in 1991.]

Thanks to the military and a number of other public servants, a week rarely goes by without a reminder of the pervasiveness of sexual harassment as a social problem. More women than ever before are seeking redress...