Norton Says Women’s Caucus Hearing on Sexual Harassment Focuses for the First Time on the Average Worker

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), the first woman to chair the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), today participated in a Women's Caucus hearing on combating sexual harassment in the workplace, specifically harassment in the service sector. The hearing featured testimony from working women representing the service industry, from hotels, to restaurants, to flight attendants. Norton said she particularly grateful that EEOC Acting Chair Victoria Lipnic, one of the hearing's witnesses, lauded Norton's groundbreaking work as the first female EEOC chair and issuing the first federal guidelines holding sexual harassment to be a violation of equal employment laws. Norton is crafting a bill to create a national commission to find ways to combat sexual harassment nationwide in major industries and workplaces, modeled on legislation Congress has enacted to combat other national problems.

"Today's hearing showed exactly why we need to hear directly from average working women, who have been overlooked because high-profile sexual harassment cases have dominated the headlines," Norton said. "My bill would create a national commission to ensure witnesses from a cross section of states and the American workplace are heard and that Congress is taking sexual harassment head on."

At the hearing, Norton asked Lipnic whether the EEOC was employing social media as a way of engaging the public, which she says is the only way some people, especially younger people, receive their news. Lipnic said the EEOC is exploring all forms of communication. Norton also asked Lipnic about EEOC's funding levels in light of the higher-profile sexual harassment has received in recent months. Lipnic said EEOC's funding has remained flat since fiscal year 2010. Last week, Norton joined 70 Members of Congress to request that additional funds be allocated for the EEOC.