Participants could have had male or female supervisors.

One of the women, Esther Soto, said male supervisors at Fort Bliss had slandered and demeaned her, then had laughed at her when she complained.

Ms. Bonner's lawyer, Hillary Richard, said her client was propositioned by her male supervisors and subjected to "crude and explicit comments about her body."

The proportion of male black supervisors has declined since 1990.

There are important trends: declining percentages of black male supervisors; the makeup of recent academy classes lagging far behind the black representation in the city.

At one company, she added, male supervisors were not allowed to give performance reviews to female subordinates unless a lawyer was present.

There are male and female supervisors at the mixed workshops as evident by the higher rations they have received with little difference in the amount of rations between the two sexes.

Conditions in the plants were primitive, with dismal safety and environmental standards and abusive male supervisors availing themselves of opportunities for sexual exploitation.

"Women just don't get as much feedback as their male counterparts, because male supervisors are still afraid they might react emotionally to criticism," she said.

She also provided the first definition of the term: "unwanted sexual advances against women employees by male supervisors, bosses, foremen or managers."