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North Country

North Country stars Charlize Theron as a female worker at an iron mining company in Northern Minnesota who is sexually harassed and leads a class-action lawsuit against her employer for failing to protect her and other female employees. "What Josey Aimes wants is a decent job so she can put food on the table and take care of her kids. What she gets is threatened, insulted, ogled, fondled, belittled, attacked and called filthy names. "Take it like a man," her callous male boss says. Instead, she takes it like a human being - and fights back." North Country portrays the story of Josey Aimes, a story that is inspired by the woman who began with nation's very first class action lawsuit for sexual harassment. This film portrays the multifaceted and complex factors that influenced the behavior of the characters and, thus, provides a telling commentary on gender expectations and norms within the context of American society.
When Josey Aimes returns to her parent's home and her hometown in Northern Minnesota after a failed marriage to a husband that constantly beat her, she needs to find a job that will help take care of her family now that she is a single mom with two children to support. Then predominant source of employment, at that time and in that region, was the iron mines.
Josey first finds a job in a hair salon washing women's hair, which obviously does not pay well. This I feel helps show what kinds of jobs there were available at that time for women. While working at the salon she runs into an old friend Glory, one of the few female miners in town, who informs her that the local mine is hiring. Glory does however tell Josey that the work itself is not easy but also that she "have to have a tuff skin" to be able to put up with the male coworkers.
When Josey decides to take the job at the mine she is ready for the long days and the hard work but has no idea about the harassment she will have to endure. Before being hired by the mine she has to undergo a...