Before the case was heard, Colorado voters ratified the Equal Rights Amendment and the state opted to settle Bonnema's case out of court for $6,750. When Bonnema's supervisors still refused to allow her entry, Bonnema filed a $100,000 class action lawsuit against the CDOT, citing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In July 1972, capping a year-long investigation, the United States Department of Transportation concluded that barring female workers from the tunnel amounted to sexual discrimination.
This superstition applied to female workers, journalists, and visitors alike. A prevailing superstition, stemming from Welsh miners who came to work in Colorado in the mid-nineteenth century, held that women who descended underground into mines or tunnels would bring bad luck, putting the male workers in danger. While Bonnema was tasked with "recording measurements, collecting rock samples, and producing technical drawings" based on data found within the tunnels, her supervisors barred her from entering the tunnel itself due to her gender. Bonnema maintained that she could do the work, and two months later the department created a special engineering technician position for her that was office-based. When Bonnema called to accept the job but question the salary being offered, she was told that "no women are allowed in the tunnel". Jamet Bonnema", as the state employer misspelled the name and was under the impression they were hiring a man. She met the qualification criteria, passed the tests, and her application was accepted as being filed by a "Mr. In November 1970 Bonnema applied to the Colorado Department of Highways (CDOT) for a position as an engineering technician for the Eisenhower Tunnel project (then named the Straight Creek Tunnel project). She spent the rest of the 1960s hitchhiking around the world, returning to Denver in 1970 having exhausted her savings. She left after two and a half years, seeing men who were less qualified than she receiving higher salaries and promotions.
Early career Īfter graduation, Bonnema began working as an engineering aide at Boeing Aircraft in Seattle. During her university years, she captained the university ski team. She was similarly advised against majoring in engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, and instead graduated with a bachelor's degree in history in 1960. Although she desired to study math and science, her guidance counselors at South High School discouraged her from pursuing these traditionally male-oriented subjects. Janet Petra Bonnema was born in Denver, Colorado, to Peter and Helen Bonnema.
She was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2012. She became a symbol for equal rights in the workplace. The state settled the case out of court and she was allowed to enter the tunnel, although she dressed inconspicuously. In 1972 she filed a $100,000 class action lawsuit against the Colorado Department of Highways for sexual discrimination. She was hired as an engineering technician for the Eisenhower Tunnel construction project in Colorado in 1970, but was barred from performing her work inside the tunnel due to the prevailing superstition that women who went underground in tunnels or mines brought bad luck, endangering the male workers. Janet Petra Bonnema (Novem– May 9, 2008) was an American civil engineer and women's rights activist. Successfully sued the Colorado Department of Highways for sexual discrimination M.S., civil engineering, University of Colorado Denver B.A., history, University of Colorado Boulder, 1960
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