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Poster for North Country

North Country

2005 · Film · 126 min

Directed by Niki Caro

Drama

A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States — Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.

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2 comments on Hacker News

  1. NeutralZeroGravitasAug 16, 2022

    The history of employment law suggests this is not the case. See for example:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Country_(film)

    > Josey quickly befriends several other female workers at the mine and soon realizes the women are constant targets for sexual harassment and humiliation by most of their male co-workers, who, like Hank, believe the women are taking jobs more appropriate for men. The union in real life was USW, and did nothing to stop it. Josey in particular is targeted by Bobby Sharp, her ex-boyfriend from high school. Josey tries to talk to her supervisor, Arlen Pavich, about the problem, but he refuses to take her concerns seriously. The women experience additional harassment and even abuse in retaliation, and Bobby spreads rumors that Josey attempted to seduce him, leading his wife to publicly berate and humiliate Josey at Sammy's hockey game. Sammy begins to resent the way the townspeople treat them and comes to believe the gossip about his mother's alleged promiscuity.

    > Josey takes her concerns to the mine's owner, Don Pearson, but despite his previous assurances that he is there to help, she arrives to find that he has invited Pavich to the meeting, along with several other executives and offers to accept her resignation immediately. She refuses, and after Pearson implies he believes the rumors about her promiscuity, leaves devastated. Later, after being sexually assaulted by Bobby at work, she resigns and asks Bill White, a lawyer friend of Kyle and Glory, to help her file a lawsuit against the company.

  2. NeutralkaitaiMay 22, 2021

    That's a really wishful-thinking reading of history. Back when women were coming into the workplace, no, a non-political workplace was not the thing called for -- a male workplace was what was called for. If you need a movie, watch North Country (based on the nonfiction book Class Action).

    Then, as now, is that people show up to work in the bodies they have and they get shit for it. People get agitated because there are problems in the world they want to fix. Just 'cause they're not problems for you doesn't mean they're not problems. It's easy to pretend its all about fluidgender otherkin when it's not your problem.