Believing

From the woman who gave the landmark testimony against Clarence Thomas as a sexual menace, Believing is a new manifesto about the origins and course of gender violence in our society. It is a combination of memoir, personal accounts, law, and social analysis, and serves as a powerful call to arms from one of our most prominent and poised survivors.

"An elegant, impassioned demand that America see gender-based violence as a cultural and structural problem that hurts everyone, not just victims and survivors... It's at times downright virtuosic in the threads it weaves together." - NPR

Winner of the 2022 ABA Silver Gavel Award for Books

In 1991, Anita Hill began work that remains unfinished. The issues of gender violence, touching on sex, race, age, and power, are as urgent today as they were when she first testified. Believing chronicles America’s three-decade-long reckoning with gender violence, offering insights into its roots and paths to creating dialogue and substantive change. It is a call to action, offering guidance based on what this brave, committed fighter has learned from a lifetime of advocacy and her search for solutions to a problem still tearing America apart.

We once thought gender-based violence—from casual harassment to rape and murder—was an individual problem affecting a few. We now know it's cultural and endemic, happening to acquaintances, colleagues, friends, and family members. It can be physical, emotional, and verbal. Women of colour experience sexual harassment at higher rates than White women. Street harassment is ubiquitous and can escalate to violence. Transgender and nonbinary people are particularly vulnerable.

Anita Hill draws on her years as a teacher, legal scholar, and advocate, and on the experiences of the thousands of individuals who have shared their stories with her. She traces the pipeline of behaviour that follows individuals from place to place—from home to school to work and back home. In measured, clear, and blunt terms, she demonstrates the impact it has on every aspect of our lives, including our physical and mental wellbeing, housing stability, political participation, economy, and community safety. She discusses how our descriptive language undermines progress toward solutions. Hill is uncompromising in her demands that our laws and leaders address the issue concretely and immediately.