University of Minnesota Moment: North Country

Transcription

[Announcer]: I'm Rick Moore with the University of Minnesota Moment. The movie North Country recently opened in movie theaters nationwide. It entails the story of female miners in northern Minnesota who sued their union and mining company in the first large class action sex discrimination suit. The University's Eugene Borgida with the College of Liberal Arts was a social psychology expert in the real-life case.

[Borgida]: And they asked me to serve as the expert witness for the women miners to provide expert testimony on the conditions under which sexual stereotyping and gender prejudices are more likely. This was a hostile work environment case and they asked me to talk about the work and psychology, particularly in social psychology, that had been done over a number of decades that gave some insight into the conditions under which men are more likely, or less likely, to stereotype women and to act hostilely toward them.

[Moore]: So what does Borgida think of the job the movie makers did on portraying the case?

[Borgida]: The movie captures some important features. It captures the extent to which this was an incredibly hostile work environment for women. That the women who were in that mining environment were subjected to crude harassing and at times even life-threatening behaviors.