‘We Believe You,’ 900 Women Tell Anita Hill at Convention : Sexual harassment: Professor who accused Clarence Thomas says abuse is pervasive and the law must be more responsive. State legislators cheer her.

CORONADO —  Before a rapturous crowd of cheering supporters, Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill warned women Friday that sexual harassment is pervasive and that laws meant to curb such abuses “are failing us.”

Hill, who last month leveled sexual harassment charges against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and prompted a national debate over the emotional subject, insisted that women work to educate men and disbelieving women about the issue.

“The law has to do more,” she said. “It needs to be more responsive to our experiences. . . . What we are seeking really is equality.”

Hill, making her first public appearance since last month’s tumultuous public hearings into her accusations, spoke before 900 women gathered for a national convention of women state legislators.

Her speech came exactly one month after Thomas was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on a 52-48 vote, the closest such confirmation in this century.

Hill dealt only indirectly with her experience during the Thomas hearing. But the triumphant sense of the evening was in marked contrast to the battering Hill received by Senate Judiciary Committee members sympathetic to Thomas.

As she entered the Hotel del Coronado ballroom for a dinner that preceded her speech, the hundreds of women stood and applauded for several minutes, waving their peach-colored dinner napkins in the air.

Later, as she was brought to the stage, there was another standing ovation and Hill greeted it with a broad smile.

“I could stand here all night and say thank you, but I couldn’t say thank you enough,” Hill told the crowd.

“Thank you!” a woman in the crowd shouted, prompting another ovation. As Hill concluded her speech, the women broke into a chant: “We believe you!”

The professor, who alleged that she was harassed by Thomas while working for him a decade ago, said that she has been moved by the scores of letters she has received since her appearance before the Senate committee.

The letters, she said, had been “at once heartwarming and heart-wrenching.”

“Out there, living and breathing, is a very harmful and dangerous thing that can confront us at any time without warning,” she said. “We know that it occurs today at an alarming rate.”

She added that stories of harassment carry an emotional punch that exceeds the statistics that show a widespread sexual harassment problem in the workplace.

“It’s not a new thing. It’s been happening for years. It happened to your mother and your grandmother,” she said. “In some ways it’s an equal-opportunity creature at least where women are concerned.”

Without referring explicitly to her own case, Hill said that women who report harassment often blame themselves, a factor she attributed to “powerlessness.”

Calling it “one of the most tragic consequences,” she also noted that women do not always believe the harassment claims of their peers. National polls taken in the days after the Thomas hearings showed that a significant proportion of American women sided with Thomas, not Hill.

Hill did not say whether she supported specific changes in the law.

Her appearance before the conference, a quadrennial event sponsored by Rutgers University’s Center for the American Woman and Politics, was hurriedly arranged after Hill testified about Thomas’ alleged behavior. Conference organizers said that she was not paid for the speech, although her travel expenses were covered.

News of Hill’s speech generated the most emotional response of the convention; organizers said they were turning away prospective attendees by the dozens. Security agents ringed the ballroom in which she spoke.

Hill’s accusations had surfaced during the federal investigation into Thomas’ background.

The debate over her charges, played out before a nationwide television audience, amplified the country’s uncertainties about sexual harassment.

When Hill took her seat before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Oct. 11, she testified that Thomas had made graphic and unwanted comments to her about his sexual prowess and pornographic movies.

Four witnesses also took to the stand and contended under oath that Hill had told them about the harassment years ago, before Thomas assumed political prominence.

But Thomas also presented witnesses attesting to his good character and questioning Hill’s, and he angrily denounced the accusations as false.

He was confirmed by the Senate on Oct. 15.