A Project of
the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls,
the Women's Museum of California,
SDSU Women's Studies Department, and UCSD Women's Center.
Dr. Gloria Harris
2010
Empowerer
Growing up in a generation where women were "to be seen and not heard," Dr. Gloria Harris devoted over a quarter of a century as a trailblazer for teaching, inspiring, and defending women both locally and nationally.
After earning her doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Washington in the early seventies, Dr. Harris recognized the relevance to the women's movement of assertive behavior therapy. In 1975, she and co-author Susan M. Osborn M.S.W. published the first book on the subject, Assertive Training for Women. From 1975-1980, Dr. Harris taught workshops based on her book in over seventy-five federal agencies throughout the United States. Her work was so groundbreaking that the New York Times, Washington Post, and the San Francisco Examiner featured articles about the workshops. In May 1977, People magazine recognized her work in a five-page article titled, "Psychologist Tells Women How to Speak Up."
Her experience coaching and training women in the workplace led to a related interest in another women's issue: sexual harassment. Before the subject attracted national attention, Dr. Harris began discussing the matter with local organizations, including the San Diego Psychology-Law Society and the National Organization of Women, San Diego chapter. Following the harassment-focused Clarence Thomas Senate Confirmation hearings in 1991, Dr. Harris appeared on Marty Levine's local television program, "Third Thursday."
Once identified as an expert on the topic of sexual harassment, Dr. Harris began a new chapter in her life. Under the sponsorship of the San Diego Commission on the Status of Women, Dr. Harris developed an interdisciplinary sexual harassment task force to study the issue, and in 1999 she was elected chair of the commission.
While maintaining a private clinical practice in San Diego, Dr. Harris frequently serves as an expert witness in sex discrimination and sexual harassment cases. Several of the instances in which she has testified have resulted in million-dollar awards for women victimized by unlawful sexual misconduct.
Dr. Harris als co-authored Trailblazers of California an Remarkable Women of San Diego with Hannah Cohen.