Women Tell of Anguish Faced in Sex Harassment : Workplace: Legislative hearing in Coronado brings out attorneys, waitresses, surgeons--all with horrifying stories of abuse from men on the job.

By CATHLEEN DECKER

Nov. 15, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES POLITICAL WRITER

One by one, their voices brimming with rage and sorrow, dozens of California women came forward at a special legislative hearing held Thursday in Coronado to tell of the sexual harassment they have endured at work, sometimes for decades.

They were attorneys and hairdressers, high-tech saleswomen and waitresses, a neurosurgeon and a pipe fitter. They had in common graphic and horrifying stories--from sexual advances against a woman police officer, to an electrician whose co-workers dumped water on her as she held live wires.

Hairdresser Verna Flanagan of Richmond crumpled into tears as she detailed years of taunts and physical abuse at the barbershop where she worked: Her breasts were pinched by employees as clients watched, she said; the harassment was “constant.”

She finally lost her job and her husband divorced her. She sued for damages and was awarded $30,000 a year ago by the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission. She never collected because the state Supreme Court ruled that the commission has no power to collect damages.

“Until this day I do not work; I have no money,” she said, breaking into sobs. “This is something that lasts a lifetime. It never goes away.”

The hearing, sponsored by the Legislature’s bipartisan women’s caucus, was the centerpiece of a weekend-long conference in Coronado of elected women legislators.

This hearing was scheduled before the nomination hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas focused public scrutiny on sexual harassment. But interest in the conference took off after that, organizers said.

Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill, who leveled charges of sexual harassment against Thomas, will make her first public appearance since the hearings at a conference session tonight. Thursday’s hearing was the province of lesser-known women, but their testimony underscored the breadth of the problem.

It also illustrated how little redress is available. Most women cannot afford to press their cases through civil courts, participants said. The alternative, the state Employment and Fair Housing Commission, only has power to demand reinstatement and back wages for women who have been fired.

A bill that would have enabled victims to collect cash damages from their employers was vetoed last month by Gov. Pete Wilson, who said the measure would harm businesses.

“There’s basically nothing that can be done unless you can afford an attorney,” said Milan D. Smith Jr., a Republican who resigned from the Fair Employment and Housing Commission to protest Wilson’s veto.

Even those who have successfully pressed legal claims testified that their struggles have consumed them.

Melissa Clerkin, one of two former Long Beach police officers recently awarded $3.1 million for harassment by colleagues, said she had been the victim of systematic abuse. She retired on a stress disability, and her jury award is expected to be appealed.

“Every aspect of our life was put on trial,” she said. “I’ve had to file bankruptcy. I have about $2 in my purse. I have to say I wouldn’t really recommend this to anybody.”

The 29 women testifying Thursday said employers had rarely taken their complaints seriously. Complaining, said several, was “career suicide.”

The harassment ranged from constant degrading remarks to outright physical altercations.

In many cases, male co-workers displayed their sexual organs and threatened women with the loss of their jobs if they did not consent to sex.

Most women said they had tried a host of tactics--from humor to wearing unappealing clothes--to stave off the undesired attention. But, to a person, their efforts failed.

Mary Gaddis, the first woman in the 1,800-member pipe-fitters’ union, said her mere presence in a male-dominated field was enough to trigger her mistreatment. “What I did was be there,” she said. “That’s all I did to deserve this.”

Linda Jofuku, the electrician whose co-workers poured water on her as she held live wires, said one of them jammed a hammer into her groin as she lay prone, installing a garbage disposal. “ ‘There’s more where that came from,’ ” the man who did it told her.

Statistics released at the hearing indicate that sexual harassment is a growing concern. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing last year handled 1,744 cases of alleged sexual harassment, twice as many as in 1986.

Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-South San Francisco) asked caucus members to join her in writing a bill requiring harassment education in companies with more than 15 employees.

“The common refrain has been, ‘They (men) just don’t get it,’ ” said Speier. “They’re all going to get it before we are finished.”