One male colleague called her “Big Girl,” a belittling nod to her 6-foot-tall stature. Another was said to make obscene gestures when he heard her voice over the company radio. A third reportedly dismissed her complaints of harassment, saying she was “losing her mind” or “throwing fits.”

For six years, Sandra S. Robertson said she endured harassment, venom and gender-based discrimination from her male colleagues as a shipping supervisor at Hunter Panels’ Smithfield plant — all the while making less than the man who was her predecessor despite her years of experience in the Air Force as a supply specialist.

Mrs. Robertson’s complaint, filed in 2012, documented her career trajectory as a 20-plus-year Air Force veteran who retired in 2004 as a master sergeant. In 2006, she became a traffic clerk at a new Hunter Panels plant in Smithfield that made insulation materials.

Harassment began then and did not abate, according to her suit. She was promoted in October 2006 and complained to her superiors several times. She was fired in April 2012 for her “job performance and ‘management style” the complaint said.

A jury found that Hunter Panels and its parent company, Carlisle Construction Materials Inc., discriminated against Mrs. Robertson, subjected her to a hostile work environment and retaliated against her by firing her. For that, jurors awarded Mrs. Robertson more than $13 million in damages and pay.

Of the $13+ million award, $12.5 million was in punitive damages One juror stated the fundamental question of gender discrimination was a relatively simple one for the jury; the difficulty came in determining how much money Mrs. Robertson should get from Carlisle, which had $2.9 billion in revenue and $235 million in net earnings, according to a 2013 annual report.