Class Action

The Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law

By: Clara Bingham, Laura Leedy Gansler

Narrated by: Gabrielle De Cuir

When the local iron mine began hiring women in 1975, Lois Jenson, a single mother on welfare, didn't think twice about accepting the grueling but well-paid job. What she hadn't considered was that she was entering a male-dominated society that fiercely resisted the inclusion of women, a prejudice born out in the brutal harassment of every female miner. Relentlessly threatened with pornographic graffiti, denigrating language, stalking, and physical assaults, the women largely kept quiet for fear of losing their jobs, until Lois, devastated by the abuse, found the courage to file a complaint in 1984.

From Jenson's first day on the job, through three intensely humiliating trials, to the emotional day of the settlement, this is the thrilling story of how one woman pioneered and won the first sexual harassment class action suit in the United States.

©2002 Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Riveting, assiduously well-reported....A useful reminder of the emotional and psychological cost of waging even the most successful-and justified-lawsuits." (New Yorker)
"Bingham and Gansler have come up with mesmerizing, complex portraits of the participants in a beautifully paced narrative....Impeccable." (Washington Post)

Women's struggle to be safe at work and in courts

This is a detailed history of the abuse of the first women mineworkers by their fellow workers and then by the court system. Thanks to the women who brought legal action, sexual and physical abuse of women is far less rampant in the workplace. But the legal system remains abusive. Just ask injured workers who file for workers comp and are harassed, denied care for years, and further injured by insurance carriers, who control the "legal" system.
Society owns a great debt to the women who sacrificed their lives to eliminate physical, sexual, and financial abuse from the workplace.

A great book!

Very educational, informative, touching, and shocking. I highly recommend this book. Social change is difficult.

What a story!

I really enjoyed this non-fiction book. If you like legal thrillers, this is a true one. I can't imagine going through what these women and lawyers went through for over 10 years to make history. I highly recommend this book.

One of the best procedurals I've ever read

Compelling, gripping, infuriating, and wonderfully written and read, this book is a masterwork. Highly recommended.

Class Action - Powerful, Shocking

This was about the first class action sexual harassment lawsuit and perhaps one of the first sexual harassment cases period brought into the Minnesota courts. Class Action does not in any way offer a quick payoff as it takes more than 15 years from the time Lois Jensen, the lead plaintiff, begins to experience intolerable sexual harassment in the Eveleth Mines of MN and the case ends.

Class Action details the price paid by the women who pursued this case. You may find the language and the graphic depictions somewhat shocking, but this is a true account of what happened in some mines and other workplaces prior to and even after Anita Hill's testimony against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and Congress and the courts establishing damage awards for sexual harassment.

The narrator does a fine job, but the book repeats itself slightly in a couple of areas.

I chose Class Action because I teach a course in Human Resources Management that includes sexual harassment as part of the curriculum. Having an interest in the subject matter is probably the most important prerequisite for enjoying this book. If you choose Class Action, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.