During an important trial, Josey told the court her entire story. The year was 1989,
and Josey was still married, but her husband was abusive and liked to beat her up.
One day, Josey had enough and ran away with her kids Sammy and Karen. They went all the way to
Northern Minnesota to stay with Josey's parents, Hank and Alice, but the first thing Hank asked her
was if her husband had caught her with another man. He'd been ashamed of her since young Alice
got pregnant in high school, and she didn't know if her boyfriend Bobby, who was always getting
frisky in public, was the father. Josey stayed with her parents, but it was difficult to have
returned to her childhood home where everyone knew her kids didn't belong to the same father and now
judged her for having left her husband; even her own parents had to deal with the gossip. One day,
while working in the hair salon, Josey reconnected with her old friend Glory, the first woman to
work in the local mine where Hank works too. She offered Josey a position there, which would allow
her to make enough money not to need her parents' help anymore. When she shared her decision with
her folks, Hank didn't take it well, accusing her of wanting to be a lesbian and not being apt
to do a man's job. Before she was accepted into the company though, she had to go through a very
invasive test with a gynecologist to prove she wasn't pregnant because her word wasn't enough.
One afternoon, her ex-husband showed up at the house to see Karen while Sammy ignored him because
he wasn't his father. Josey kicked him out while Hank had hoped they would talk, and afterward,
Alice told her that accepting the job at the mine would bring shame to the family. Tired of the lack
of support, Josey accepted the job anyway and moved in with Glory and her husband Kyle until
she could get her own place. On Josey's first day at the mine, supervisor Pavich gave the new girls
a speech about this being a man's job and the new law being the only reason they were hiring women,
he also made inappropriate comments about their bodies and wouldn't stop other employees from
throwing slurs their way. Glory had been working there for a while and even was a union rep,
but even she had to fight for basic things like a break. Pavich gave the girls a tour of the place
and Josey was shocked to discover that the guy in charge of the Powder Room was her school ex Bobby,
who also made inappropriate comments when he saw them. It seemed he was still pushy,
since Josey could remember how he was always trying to get busy with her outside school.
One day, this got them caught by Mister Lattavansky and earned them detention. The actual
work in the mine wasn't so hard, but dealing with the men's attitude wasn't easy; they would often
write slurs on the female changing rooms and hide inappropriate toys in their lunch boxes. At least
Josey got to befriend Peg, Sherry and Betty, and lunchtime was easier thanks to their company.
Glory was there for them too, but Josey started to get worried about her health because what
Glory called simple arthritis seemed to be getting worse. After lots of arguing and being made fun
of with the rest of the union, Glory managed to get portable toilets installed outside. At home,
Kyle tried to connect with Sammy by showing him his work with watches, but Sammy thought it was
lame. A few weeks later, once Josey had earned her first paycheck, she was proud to take the kids to
a nice restaurant to celebrate the start of a new, better life. There, she was approached by Pearson,
one of the company owners, who told her to go to him if she ever was in any trouble. One morning,
while the girls were cleaning the Powder room, which had more insulting graffiti waiting for
them, one of the men asked Sherry for a cigarette, but instead of letting her take it out, he put his
hand on her front pocket as an excuse to touch. Later, Josey went to Pavich to make a complaint,
but he only told her to take it like a man. Josey threatened with talking to Pearson, but Pavich
forbid her from doing so. Later, Bobby tried to hit on her and made her extremely uncomfortable,
so she took a break in the changing room to have a good cry. When Glory found her,
Josey still thanked her for getting her this job because for the first time ever she felt like she
was actually living. One night at the local bar, Kyle got to reunite with his old friend Bill,
who had come back to his hometown after getting divorced. Glory wanted to introduce Bill to Josey,
but he was hesitant to jump back into the waters so soon. By the time he made up his mind,
it was too late, Josey was already dancing with Ricky, who she thought seemed a nice guy. When
they returned home, Josey discovered Sammy had gotten drunk. The next day, Josey took the kids
to see the house she finally got, although she had to deal with Sammy's rude hangover mood as well.
After moving, things only got better for the family: Josey could finally buy good ice skates
for Sammy to play hockey, and even a trampoline for the backyard. Sometime later, Bobby told Josey
that he knew she was having a hard time so he had a talk with the guys to try to cool things down.
Then, he sent Josey up the conveyor to take care of some clogging. However, as soon as
she made it to the top, Bobby asked a friend to turn on the conveyor again and with the noise
covering anything he may say from curious ears, he cornered Josey and tried to get busy with her
after pointing out how nobody would find her for days if she fell. Upset, Josey turned him down and
left. In the trial, Pavich called this typical behavior because Josey liked to make mountains
from molehills. Josey had told him about what happened on the conveyor, and all Pavich did was
give Bobby a talk. This made Josey remember the day she and Bobby had detention with Lattavansky;
Bobby had been allowed to leave but the teacher made Josey stay longer to have a word with her.
Back to Josey's story, one afternoon she invited her parents to come to Hank's hockey
match on Sunday, but Hank made up some excuse not to go. Josey tried to make him see reason,
pointing out how she worked hard and got her own place the same way he did, but he got offended
by the comparison. When Sunday came, Glory and Kyle brought Bill so he could finally meet Josey.
Her parents came as well, but they sat away from them. Sammy wasn't having a good time though, his
teammates won't make passes to him because their parents don't want them to be friends with him.
In the middle of the match, Bobby's wife came to yell at Josey in front of everyone,
calling her a tart and telling her to stay away from her husband. After the match,
Sammy's girlfriend told Josey that Sammy would be staying the night at her house.
Josey didn't even know Sammy had a girlfriend and never gave him permission to stay anywhere else,
thus she rushed to the girlfriend's car to drag Sammy out. An argument began between mother and
son where Sammy told her everyone turned out to be right and she was truly a tart,
and Josey got humiliated in public once again; now everyone thought she was crazy.
When they got home, the kids went inside and Josey stayed in the car, crying. Back to the trial,
Peg was telling everyone how after that day, Josey lost it and kept ranting to her female coworkers
that they shouldn't take it anymore and nobody was protecting them. She also said that the men never
bothered her, which was untrue, they also painted insulting graffiti on the machine she worked at
and teased her for it. Whenever the women got together after work, Josey tried to convince
them to go see Pearson together, but they were too afraid to lose their jobs or to get even more
harassed for being tattle-tales. What made it the most difficult was the lack of Glory's presence;
she wasn't going to work or to their girls' night because she was getting sicker by the day.
Sometime later, when Josey was using the portable toilet, the men began to shake it until it dropped
on the floor and Josey came out of it covered in toilet water, barely able to stand up until
Ricky helped her. The next day Josey drove to the city to have a talk with Pearson,
only to find out Pavich had gotten there first. Having Pavich's version of the events,
Pearson refused to hear Josey out and told her he would make her the favor of allowing her to resign
now instead of handing in the usual two-weeks notice. Josey refused to quit though, which
prompted Pearson to tell her to stop stirring her female coworkers and visiting the men's beds to
instead work harder. At home, Sammy wasn't talking to Josey, didn't want to hang out with her either,
and came home at whatever time he wanted. He also quit the hocket team without letting his mom know.
Some days later, Josey visited Glory and found out she had Lou Gehrig's Disease, so she could barely
move. Kyle stayed supportive of his wife through these hard times, and Josey couldn't help feeling
a bit of envy. One morning, the women arrived at work to discover the men had written insults and
slurs on the walls of their changing room using excrement. Because this was a reaction to Josey
going to Pearson, the other women make her clean it all. Afterward, Josey went to see Ricky to
get information on who did this, but Ricky told her these were her consequences to deal with.
Then, Bobby took her to the Powder Room with the excuse of having a chat, but he actually threw her
on the ground to assault her and almost choke her, threatening her with violence if she didn't play
by the rules. During lunchtime, Josey told Ricky what Bobby did in front of everyone, but Ricky
denied it and nobody offered support. That was the last straw and Josey finally quit. In the evening,
Glory tried to attend the union meeting even while feeling sick, but since she wasn't working there
anymore, they didn't let her stay. The next day, Josey asked Bill for help to sue the company,
but Bill refused. He thought Josey had no chance, they would either call her a paranoid nuts that
imagined things or a tart that asked for it. Josey accused him of not caring about the
safety of women in the mine, leaving him feeling guilty. Later, Bill shared his worries with Kyle,
confessing he would've taken the case if he was still working in a big New York firm.
Kyle explained they never picked on Glory because she became a union rep early on and
there was safety in numbers. This was enough for Bill to change his mind and go see Josey to
accept the case, but only if she could get the other female employee's support so this could
be a class action lawsuit. One woman could be accused of lying, but not all of them together.
Josey was curious about his change of heart, and Bill explained harassment class action had never
been done before and he wanted to be the first one. Josey went to see Glory to ask for her
support, but she was in the hospital with her mind on different matters. During the first hearing,
Josey showed up with Bill while Pearson took his lawyer Leslie, who immediately jumped on
the fact Josey only had her own testimony while the company had signed declarations from the
other women saying they were doing fine. The judge decided to give Bill and Josey a chance,
but they had to find a minimum of three supporters for this to properly become a class action.
Later, both Leslie and Bill visited the hospital to see Glory, who could barely even speak. She
still refused to get involved, so Kyle kicked them out for bothering his wife while she was in such
a state. Josey visited all the other female workers, but they were too scared to help.
Leslie later had a meeting with Pearson to express her worries over possibly losing,
especially since this could have a big impact on work law all over the country,
but Pearson brought Bobby in to share some stories that could help them win. Meanwhile,
Alice visited Josey to leave her some money to feed the kids while she looked for another job.
When she returned home, Hank called her out for giving away his money,
saying Josey had brought nothing but shame to the family. Tired of her husband's attitude,
Alice decided to stay in a hotel for now, only leaving a note behind. Sometime later,
Josey and Bill attended a union meeting, where Bobby was at the microphone saying he didn't do
anything and insulting her. Josey asked for a turn to talk, which was her right as a union member,
but they barely let her say a couple of words before inventing some rule about limited time.
Everyone kept insulting her and making rude gestures, and Hank finally saw what Josey's
reality was like. Not being able to see his own family mistreated like this, Hank took over the
microphone to tell everyone he was ashamed of them for their behavior. Nobody picked on each
other's wives during company picnics, yet now they didn't care that a friend's daughter needed help.
Hank declared nobody in the room was his friend anymore and the only person he wasn't ashamed of
was his daughter, yet when they left, all the men clapped for him for standing up for his beliefs.
Afterward, Hank went to the hotel to reconcile with Alice while the other women went back to
work. Betty and Sherry were starting to reconsider Josey's side, but Peg still wanted to lie on the
stand. Things only got worse when Sherry opened her locked and found a man's seed on her clothes.
During the trial, Leslie kept pressuring Josey about her history of lovers, claiming she had
had a ton. She also brought Lattavansky to the courthouse while she let everyone know Josey was
already a tart as a teenager and she even made passes at her teacher. Devastated, Josey had no
other choice but to confess something she never told anyone: that day at detention, after Bobby
left, Lattavansky took advantage of her. Bobby saw it and ran instead of helping her, but he told
the company this to use it against Josey during the trial. Furious, Hank jumped on Lattavansky
to beat him up, so he had to be removed from the room. Josey left as well, almost on the edge of a
breakdown. That night, Josey's parents stayed with her for support. Sammy had run away from home and
Kyle later found him in his basement, so he took the chance to scold him for how he treated his
mother. Kyle understood that Sammy was upset for discovering his father had been an abuser instead
of a soldier that died in war like Josey had told him, but that didn't give Sammy the right to call
her names when she was always working very hard to protect and provide for her children.
As a teenager, it would've been easier for her to give Sammy up to someone else, yet she kept him,
and Sammy should appreciate that. After Kyle gifted him one of his watches to show him he
had a friend, Sammy went to talk to Josey. She shared her experience of being pregnant,
then the two of them agreed not to hide anything more from each other and hugged. The next day,
Bill called Bobby on the stand, who kept lying and saying Josey had enjoyed being with Lattavansky.
But Bill called him a coward that didn't have the guts to be a real man, taunting Bobby into
finally admitting that Lattavansky had indeed attacked Josey and he did nothing. At that moment,
Glory arrived in a wheelchair and Kyle spoke for her, explaining she came to stand with Josey.
Desperate, Leslie tried to stop this, pointing out Josey still needed two more people for this
to be a class action, but it was too late: Glory's presence there inspired the other women and even
a few of the men to stand up to support Josey as well. The real women of the Mesabi Iron Range won
their case in court. They received a modest financial settlement, but more importantly,
they got a harassment policy that would protect them and all the women that came after them.