How did the misconduct of the powerful in the 1990s—and the bravery of a workplace-harassment pioneer—inform where we are today? The author of The Naughty Nineties searches for an answer.

The 1990s were promising years for the young and the restless who were trying to make it in Hollywood. Indie films were in their heyday. Producer Harvey Weinstein was helping to bankroll and champion watershed features like Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love. And yet it was during this same period, according to recent accounts by various accusers, that Weinstein allegedly engaged in predatory sexual behavior, beginning as early as 1991. (Some women say they accepted the producer’s offers to meet with them because of the considerable sway he held over countless Hollywood careers. Weinstein has insisted that such encounters were consensual, denying certain accusations and apologizing for others.)

Though battles continue to be fought over sexual harassment—along with sex discrimination, gender inequity, domestic violence and abuse, and hate crimes against members of the L.G.B.T. community—the 1990s, in hindsight, proved to be the decade when many of these issues came to the fore. Particularly, the 90s were a turning point in the public outrage over workplace misconduct, such as harassment, intimidation, coercion, and assault. Almost on a monthly basis, men in positions of power—members of the clergy, elected officials, athletes, performers, and business figures—were being castigated in the press, and in the court filings, for allegations of unwelcome sexual behavior.

As I describe this pattern in my new book, The Naughty Nineties, “Incidents involving pedophile priests regularly surfaced after years of silence, denial, and hush money. Frequent, too, were accusations of sexual misconduct—or of behavior that might be perceived as unbecoming a public servant—against lawmakers and governors and political figures (Democrats and Republicans) throughout the 80s and 90s, including Jon Hinson, Robert Bauman, John Schmitz, Dan Crane, Brock Adams, John Tower, Buz Lukens, Bob Packwood, Dan Burton, Henry Hyde, and Mel Reynolds.”

Indeed, President Bill Clinton himself, in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court, battled allegations that, while governor of Arkansas, he had made a crude sexual overture to a state employee, Paula Jones. (The Jones suit was eventually settled with no admission of wrongdoing on Clinton’s part.) And even as Clinton was impeached—in part for lying under oath about a romantic relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky—his nemesis Newt Gingrich, the Speaker of the House, as I’ve noted, “was involved in his own affair. [His] designated successor, Bob Livingston, would withdraw his name from nomination in 1999 amid rumors of his own extramarital activities. And his replacement, Dennis Hastert, would eventually be branded a ‘serial child molester’ and sent to jail.”)