In 1975, Lois Jenson started working in a mine in northern Minnesota鈥檚 Iron Range. Almost from the beginning, according to court documents, Ms. Jenson and other women were subjected to sexual harassment, verbal abuse, threats, stalking, and intimidation. This behavior has since become known as "strategic" or "territorial harassment," in this case acts perpetrated by men in a predominately male workplace.
In 1984, Jenson wrote a complaint about the abuse to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. The mine鈥檚 co-owner, Ogelbay Norton Co., refused the state鈥檚 request to pay $6,000 in punitive damages and $5,000 to Jenson for mental anguish.
In 1988, Jenson鈥檚 attorney, Paul Sprenger, filed the United States鈥� first class-action sexual harassment lawsuit on behalf of Jenson and other women who worked for the mining company. After a lengthy legal process in which the details of their personal lives were made public, Jenson and the other plaintiffs were awarded $10,000 apiece in 1996. However, the judgment was appealed and reversed by the in 1997, and a new jury trial was ordered.
Just before the trial was to begin in 1998, 15 women settled with Eveleth Mines for a total of $3.5 million. The case became the subject of a book entitled 鈥淐lass Action鈥� in 2002 and in 2005 was made into a film called 鈥溾�� starring Charlize Theron.
