The term “sexual harassment” was coined in the 1970s by female employees of Cornell University.
An online discussion gained momentum in October surrounding the origin of the phrase “sexual harassment,” tracing it back to female staff members at Cornell University during the 1970s.
Individuals across social media platforms expressed surprise that such a foundational term has only existed for roughly half a century. This conversation gained traction while Cornell was already receiving widespread media attention due to a 2024 lawsuit alleging that seven male students had drugged and raped a female peer—a group frequently discussed as the “Cornell 7.”
The statement is accurate.
The phrase “sexual harassment” emerged during the 1970s, largely attributed to Lin Farley, who at the time directed the women’s section of Cornell University’s human affairs program and co-founded Working Women United, an advocacy organization established in 1975 to address workplace misconduct.
Historical records indicate that Farley developed the terminology alongside colleagues Susan Meyer and Karen Sauvigne, who also served in the university’s human affairs department.
Their advocacy began after a former Cornell secretary, Carmita Wood, sought their help following her resignation. Wood had faced repeated sexual harassment from her supervisor, the prominent nuclear physicist Boyce McDaniel, and was subsequently denied unemployment benefits by the institution.
In response, Working Women United rallied behind Wood. By April 1975, Farley presented testimony before the New York City Commission on Human Rights, an event highlighted in an August 19, 1975, New York Times report titled “Women Begin to Speak Out Against Sexual Harassment at Work.”
According to the newspaper, Farley stated during the proceedings, “Sexual harassment of women in their place of employment is extremely widespread. It is literally epidemic.”
The publication also referenced data gathered at Cornell showing that more than 70 percent of 155 survey respondents had encountered some form of unwanted sexual behavior, with 92 percent viewing it as a severe issue. Furthermore, over half of the women who reported the behavior through official channels found that no action was taken.
In May 1975, the organization hosted an event titled “Speak-Out on Sexual Harassment of Women at Work,” where Farley opened by stating, “My name is Lin Farley and I’d like to welcome you to the first Speak-Out ever, that I know of or anyone else knows of, on the issue of sexual harassment on the job.”
Farley later released a 1978 book, “Sexual Shakedown: The Sexual Harassment of Women on the Job,” which explored the widespread nature of the issue. In it, she acknowledged the vital contributions of Meyer, Sauvigne, and Wood, noting in the preface that the closure of Cornell’s human affairs program in 1976 served as the catalyst for writing the book.
Within her book, Farley noted that the 1975 New York Times piece functioned as the country’s first nationally syndicated coverage of the topic, prompting women nationwide to unite under a grassroots movement by sharing their own stories.
Decades later, amid the momentum of the “MeToo” movement, Farley penned a 2017 opinion piece for The New York Times bearing the headline “I Coined the Term ‘Sexual Harassment.’ Corporations Stole It.”
She reflected in the piece:
It wasn’t until April 1975 that women had a word for talking about what their male bosses were doing to them.
It was that month that I first used the phrase “sexual harassment” in public, during a hearing on women in the workplace by the New York City Human Rights Commission, at which I was testifying as an instructor at Cornell University. The New York Times covered the hearing in an article that was reprinted across the country. And thus, a concept was born.
[…]
The decades since have been disappointing. The working women’s revolution I once envisioned hasn’t happened. But not only that, the term, which once held so much promise, has been co-opted, sanitized, stripped of its power to shock, disturb and galvanize. Today the term “sexual harassment” may be ubiquitous; the behavior, unfortunately, remains ubiquitous, too.