What Are You Suppose To Do When The Ones With All The Power Are Hurting Those With None?

Women's rights have a very long way to go in America. The kinds of behaviors going on are constant day-to-day occurrences. A case started in 1984 and lasted until 1998: Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite, Co., 130 F.3d 1287 (8th Cir. 1997) , an Iron Range in northern Minnesota. A modest financial settlement was awarded to the female workers who came forth with courage and dignity after enduring thirteen years of vile sexual harassment. Most importantly, this case changed the way businesses are run today; paid leave for pregnancies... And, legal precedent affecting every single company in America establishing sexual-harassment policies that would protect women from harm on the job.

It was as recent as the Anita Hill incident when everyone condemned the woman and felt sorry for the man and his family. Women carried their own burden of work but people treated women as if she were stealing. Women were scared of what men wrote about her on the walls, or what kind of disgusting thing she might find in her locker, scared that one day they'll come to work and get raped. The policy was that females were taking jobs where there weren't any to take; Work hard, keep your mouth shut and take it like a man. Even though the Union motto was "Respect fellow members," the boys and management didn't help the hostile workplace environment for they were to "Never rat on brother."

A woman was being beaten by an abusive husband. She did not go to the police.  Instead, she took her children in search of a way to support her family. When she goes to her father for support, he thinks her promiscuity is the reason for the beatings. He works at the mine and feels ashamed that his daughter is determined to take this male oriented job.

Before being hired to work at the mine, the intrusive policy of Gynecological exams, etc. would be implicated. The job is considered a s_ _ _ pit, loud as all get out: hauling, lifting, driving and all sorts of other things a woman shouldn't be doing. Upon submitting the consent form to the employer, the boss jokes, "The doc says 'you look darn good under those clothes.'" Upon describing "ear protection," the boss calls the women "c_ _ts."  The women go along with the lunch room vulgarity while it becomes the vicinity of dirty pranks: a dildo in a girl's lunch box; Commenting "Which one of these girls is gonna be my b_ _ _ h?" The words, "C_ _t" and "Rat" are written on the wall of the girls bathroom with feces. During a job cleanup, one man pushes himself on a female worker by laying his hands inside her breast pocket while demanding a cigarette.  Inscribed on a wall, "Bl_wJobs $5 (swallow 50c)." A Union rep demands Porta-Johns for the ladies. One opposing rep demands what the girls will do for the men. "Discount Bl_wJobs, for everybody but you." she replies. The harassment escalates when a female worker gets physically attacked during a job on the number four conveyor.  Another complains that she is tired of getting her ass grabbed by a bunch of old men.  "Maybe you've been asking for it." replies one woman. The woman's son begins to side with everyone else, hating his mother, saying she should go to jail, calling her a whore and a liar.

Before a female worker was terrorized by male workers in the "crapper" and turned over in the Porta-Potty, the saying went, "Sherry, Sherry, quite contrary Kiss my ass, it's really hairy." "If you don't mind, we took a big dump in that this morning." Soon after, the women's bathroom walls is desecrated with feces again. They are ordered to clean their new "scratch and sniff wallpaper" the written words "c_nts" "rats" being reminders that they will be screwed with until she shuts her mouth. A few women talk about perjuring themselves to keep the peace at their job. One female worker finds ejaculation on her clothing in her locker. Again, physically attacked, a male worker grabs her private parts and told her she will learn the rules or he will beat the crap out of her.

The Nuts and Sluts Defense Is Still Being Used Today In Virtually All Women's Cases

Being accused of making mountains out of molehills, always misconstruing things,
paranoid stuff...being emotional led to a woman's son being harassed at ice hockey. She becomes branded and accused of being a mining whore who was promiscuous with husbands. Her own son calling her a whore...The community calls her crazy...mentally disturbed, losing it by ranting "not to take it anymore." The company and union won't protect female workers and instead blame the woman of stirring up other female workers and being in the beds of married co-workers. Unable to turn to other women for support, the single woman with two kids out of wedlock and an alleged "sordid sexual history," she was not going to win.

You're either nuts and you imagined it, or a slut and you asked for it. It is difficult to
find people who don't run with the herd. Safety in numbers. Herds stay together, they have a chance. If they separate, they're easy prey. It is not a few bad guys. It takes a village to do what's being done here: All with the foot on the throat of this woman. To go along with it, they call her crazy and deny anything is going on. Affidavits from women are coerced all stating there have been no incidents of abuse. Many female workers believe if they lose, they will continue to work under worse hostilities and are intimidated into signing.

What do you do? For starters, you stand up and tell the truth. You stand up for your friends. You stand up even when you are all alone.