Ann Olivarius was a member of the Yale Undergraduate Women's Caucus during the mid-1970s. During this time, Olivarius sued the school as a part of Alexander v. Yale alongside other students and a professor for what The New Yorker describes as "quid-pro-quo sexual harassment by professors, a hostile environment, and a lack of reporting procedures". The case was eventually dismissed, however Olivarius was credited with coining the phrase during the process "date rape", which she publicized through a series of talks at the college. In 1978 received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University. At Oxford, Olivarius pursued a DPhil in Economics at Somerville College, where her thesis was entitled Working Democracy: Analysis and prospects of British worker co-operatives. In 1986, Olivarius graduated from Yale with a combined MBA and JD.
Career
As a lawyer, Olivarius has represented victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and discrimination. This has included representing victims of nonconsensual pornography and other internet-based privacy violations, such as YouTube personalityChrissy Chambers. Olivarius is a co-founder of the law firm AO Advocates, which represents victims of childhood sexual abuse, and a senior partner at McAllister Olivarius. In 2017, the British academic journalNature named Olivarius as one of "Nature’s 10" people who mattered in science because of her work fighting sexual harassment at universities. That year she also became a Donaldson Fellow at the Yale School of Management, citing her as "a groundbreaking civil rights litigator". Olivarius established The Rhodes Project to study the lives and careers of Rhodes Scholars. In 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union included her in its list of nine most influential people in the history of Title IX. She received the Yale Women Lifetime Achievement Award from the Yale Alumni Association in 2019. Nelson Mandela praised Olivarius as “a lawyer who has advised me well and who has courageously advanced the cause of justice, and improved life opportunities, for hundreds of millions of women, blacks and disadvantaged, worldwide.” She has served on the boards of openDemocracy, Autistica, and Women Moving Millions.
