maricruz ladino was among the first to agree to appear on camera. >> bergman: maricruz is not alone. female farm workers have been abused for generations. >> i became aware of it as a young woman, and my mother would never let me work in the fields. you cannot close your eyes and your ears to us any longer. >> bergman: dolores huerta was one of the founders of the united farm workers, with cesar chavez. >> harassment was part of the job, so to speak. women are looked at as sex objects when they are out there in the field. sexual harassment is an epidemic in the fields, and it again goes back to the vulnerability that farm worker women have. they work in isolated places, many of them don't speak english, a lot of them don't even know the laws. they don't even know that they can report sexual harassment and that the employer can be responsible for that. and so they feel helpless. >> bergman: until 1995, there was no government agency that made the plight of female farm workers a priority. then, bill tamayo went to work in san francisco for the equal employment opportunity commission: t