Like Ann Coulter says, the 1990s where the equivilent of the Salem witch trials when it came to sexual harrasment. That is so so sooooo incredibly spot on because I personally witnessed how out of control it was many many times.
One episode that stands out like a brick in my mind is around 1992 a male co-worker asking a female co-worker out for a drink after work. She did not complain, but the paranoia was so great that he was immediately fired that same day when the boss overheard him. Just an absolute *head slapping* WTF moment.
You'd presume he had some sensitivity for folks' rights but you'd be wrong. One individual in our office had some bad habits. The Board of Governors was interested in getting to the bottom of unrest among the female employees. Jenkins was a go-getter. He said he knew what to do and formed a REVIEW BODY.
Well over a thousand women went before this review body and reported in public what this particular male had done to them personally. I think they got up to 1600 women before it was over, and it was everything. He said "stuff", and he dropped pencils, and he sat too close and on and on ~ and he was a cheap date ~ never went anywhere nice.
This affair took on the appearance of a Kangaroo Court with Jenkins playing the part of Judge Roy Bean or maybe Judge Leander Perez, the iron fist of Plaquemines Parish Louisiana.
In the end the guy got off the hook precisely because this Jenkins guy used the Kangaroo Court techniqe ~ which, in fact, he'd protested against as part of SNCC in earlier years.
He eventually left the Board of Governors long before the end of his term and went on to other less noteworthy assignments. The Kangaroo Court turned out to be his downfall.
So, yes, those were dark times back then when women with pitchforks and and flaming torches roved the halls of the federal establishment in DC looking for males foolish enough to challenge convention.
I'm sure more than one guy commited suicide over this sort of treatment.