Lois Jenson: The Silence Breaker From North Country

Lois Jenson’s courage and tenacity have made her a historic figure in the battle against sexual harassment.

She was the lead plaintiff in the first class-action sexual harassment lawsuit -- a case that inspired the 2005 movie North Country.

I spoke with her in 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement, for an in-depth Wavemaker Conversation. I’ve decided to repost the conversation now, for historical context, in light of the release of She Said, the new movie about Harvey Weinstein.

Jenson was one of the first four women miners in the Eveleth Taconite Mine in northern Minnesota. In our Wavemaker Conversation, Jenson shares with me the details of what a judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals called the “record of human indecency [that] sought to destroy the human psyche as well as the human spirit" of Jenson and the other female miners.

Among other things, Jenson recalls the good guys at the mine who, she says, far outnumbered the bad guys — including some who urged her to keep up her fight.

Getting to know Lois Jenson during this Wavemaker Conversation has been a source of inspiration for me. I hope it will be for you too.