pornographic cartoons of female workers in workplace

[Anonymous <annie957@hotmail.com>]

I have been sitting here reading one horror story after 
another and sadly I must say for the first time in a long
time I do not feel so alone.  I have worked in a male-dominated industry for 10 years but most of my problems
began when the company was sold 6 years ago.  I am the traffic manager for this company and this requires me to
be out in our plant around the men all the time.  About
4-1/2 years ago one of our customers' truck drivers stopped
me outside my office and told me he thought I would want
to know someone had drawn pornographic cartoons of me on
the stall in the men's restroom.  He wouldn't tell me any
details because he said it would embarrass him to describe
it to me.  There is only one men's restroom in our facility
with only 2 stalls and it is used by all the male employees,
including the general manager, plant manager, and plant 
foreman, truck drivers, our vendors, and customers (who are
predominantly male).  I immediately went to the plant mana-
ger who told me "No one pays any attention to that stuff".
I then went to the general manager who 'laughed' and told 
me "Boys will be boys, it doesn't mean anything".  Finally,
I went to the plant foreman who told me he wouldn't do any-
thing about it because the same employee did cartoons about
him (not pornographic) and he didn't want him to think it 
bothered him.  I continued to complain to the three of them
the entire day to no avail.  The next day I had my husband
come to take me to lunch so he could go into the restroom
and look at the cartoon.  He was furious and when I returned
from lunch I went to the plant manager and informed him my
husband had seen the cartoon and if they didn't do some-
thing about it he would.  Finally the plant manager erased
it and the punishment was to tell this employee "don't do
this again".  I also informed them not to let this happen
again.  Last October I had a very serious accident which
required surgery so I was off work.  One day following a
Dr. appt. my husband took me to my office to inform them
that I was going to have another surgery.  While I was in
the office he went to the restroom and found more of these
cartoons.  This time my husband went back with a camera and
took pictures which we took to an attorney who eagerly
accepted the case.  This was in February and the attorney
finally managed to send a letter to the co. in April and
then did nothing else.  He wouldn't even return my phone
calls for 4-5 days and it would usually take my husband calling his office to find out why he hadn't returned
my calls.  In August (after 6 months with this attorney) I
got a letter from him (while he was on a 2 week vacation)
stating he didn't think he could handle my case and should
come pick up my file.  I have been seeing a psycologist for
the past 6 months and am on medications for depression and
anxiety.  2 months ago I also had my third major surgery
for my injury.  I suppose the best part of my injury is the
fact that it has kept me out of work throughout this.  The 
thought of going back makes me feel sick.  I have 2 children
both in college.  I want my daughter to know that she does
not have to tolerate harrassment-I want my son to know this
is wrong and to never condon this behavior from anyone.  My
children are the reason I am doing this - to set an example
for them as leaders in the future.  I talked to another
attorney last week - he is supposed to let me know this
week whether he will take my case or not.  I know this is
long but if he doesn't take my case I don't know where to
go from here.  Does anyone know if there is an ethics issue
with the attorney who dumped my case after 6 months?  I
would welcome any advice, support, or just someone to talk
to who understands what this feel like.  Thanks for listen-
ing.