A Harvard University librarian lost a lawsuit in which she claimed she had been repeatedly turned down for promotion because she is black and is perceived as “just a pretty girl whose attire was too sexy.” During the trial, the 40-year-old librarian, who earned master’s degrees in both library science and English literature and has 16 years’ experience as a librarian, said she has been rejected for seven promotions since 1999. The university’s attorney countered that for every job the librarian had applied for, Harvard had received applications from dozens of other qualified candidates across the country. The librarian says she has no immediate plans to leave Harvard, although she is looking for library jobs elsewhere.
