9to5

9to5, National Association of Working Women is an organization established in 1973 that is dedicated to improving working conditions and ensuring the rights of women and families in the United States.

History

The group has its origins in 9to5 News, a newsletter that was first published in December 1972. About a year later, the newsletter's publishers announced the formation of Boston 9to5, a grassroots collective for women office workers that addressed issues such as low pay, lack of opportunities for advancement, sexual harassment in the workplace, and overall respect for them.^[1] The group started in 1973 with ten women in Boston working as clerical workers.^[2]

The national organization has buildings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Atlanta, Georgia, as well as appearing in states including Colorado and California. The organization had as many as 12,000 members.^[1]

One of the organization's earliest victories included a class-action suit filed against several Boston publishing companies that awarded the female plaintiffs $1.5 million in back pay. In 1975, the founders of 9to5 joined with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and formed Local 925 of the SEIU in Boston in order to help office workers gain access to collective bargaining rights.

Development and influence

In 1977, 9to5 Boston merged with Cleveland Women Working (est. 1975 primarily by Helen Williams) to create the Cleveland-based Working Women Organizing Project. Based in Cleveland from 1977-1993, the national organization was a coalition of like-minded associations and was headed by Karen Nussbaum, one of Boston 9to5's founders.^[3][4] Nussbaum was the executive director of 9to5 while also being the president of Local 925 until 1993.^[5] Nussbaum's involvement in the organization began with her friend Ellen Cassedy, whom she met at Harvard University, while they were working as secretaries. Together, they founded the Boston 9to5 after several years of recruitment and the formation of smaller like-minded groups.^[6]

Cassedy held the role of recruiting, organizing, and contacting potential members, as well as handling relations with bosses and CEOs of other organizations. She trained at The Midwest Academy serving as a scout to learn the basics of union organization.^[6]

Debbie Schneider worked for the women's organization of office workers in New York City and eventually joined 9to5 in Cincinnati, Ohio. While a part of the organization, she was in charge of organizing university clericals.^[6]

The group was later known as the National Association of Working Women. Members of this group met with Jane Fonda and served as an inspiration for the smash-hit comedy, 9 to 5,^[7] featuring Fonda, Dolly Parton, and Dabney Coleman, among others. The film focuses on clerical working women, their experiences at work, and the overall activism of the 9 to 5 women during the 1970s, and the unionizing of the 1980s.^[8]

Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar filmed a documentary about the 9to5 movement that was released in 2021.^[9][10]

Continued efforts

In 1981, the National Association of Working Women formed a national-level partnership with SEIU and formed SEIU District 925, a nationwide labor union for office workers. After several name changes, the organization adopted its current name in 1983, and "9to5, National Association of Working Women" evolved into the largest membership organization of working women in the United States. During the 1980s and 1990s, 9to5 focused on issues such as the effects of automation, pay inequities, medical leave, and racial and sexual harassment and discrimination.

The organization effectively used the media and lobbied legislators as part of a campaign to warn the public of the health dangers of video display terminals (also known as VDTs) and has also used the media to draw attention to several sexual harassment cases in the 1990s.^[4]

As part of its educational efforts, 9to5 established the Job Retention Project in 1987 to assist office workers in developing time management, goal-setting, and problem-solving skills. In addition, the organization publishes fact sheets, newsletters, and books, such as The Job/Family Challenge: A 9to5 Guide (1995), by Ellen Bravo, that keep workers abreast of current issues.

Among other issues, 9to5 actively promotes workplace policies such as paid sick leave, equal pay, and an end to discrimination for hiring or firing based on gender or sexual orientation. 9to5 additionally staffs a Job Survival Helpline to give support to women facing difficulties or challenges in the workplace.^{[citation needed]}

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment was first coined by a radical feminist activist Lin Farley,^[11] when she encountered and learned about the Carmita Woods case. Woods was a female administrative assistant at Cornell’s Laboratory of Nuclear Studies where she was constantly sexually harassed by her superior. One example included her supervisor putting his hands on Woods's bottom at an office party. With this, Farley was able to come to a conclusion that sexual harassment was present within her workplace.^[12]

The 9to5 movement was able to go one step further and focused on the harassment aspect rather than the sexual aspect of sexual harassment. They understood that it was about having power over another person rather than sexual pleasure.^[13] There are two types of sexual harassment that will better help understand this relationship, hostile work environments and quid pro quo. A hostile work environment is when an individual is harassed by either a co-worker, a non-worker, or a boss over a period of time.^[14] Quid pro quo (this for that) is where an individual of a higher power relationship asks for sexual favors in exchange for a better job position or threats of termination.^[15]

In the early history of America, women only had legal and social power through their family and if married through their husbands, meaning that as individuals they had no legal say in their social relationship to others.^[16] It was during the Civil Rights Movement in 1964 the amendment to prohibit sex discrimination in the workplace was added to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It was a ploy at first by the Republic senators who thought that adding the sex discrimination amendment would cause the Title VII to lose votes and not be passed.^[17] In 1978, the first marital rape case was presented in court, the Oregon v. Rideout trial. Before then, marital rape was not considered a legal case because the previous legal understanding was that after marriage, the woman had forfeited herself to her husband that she was not able to take it back.^[18]

The 9to5 movement realized that sexual harassment revolved around the unlimited power posed by satisfaction. ^[13][11] Ellan Bravo, one of the authors of The 9to5 Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment, led a sexual harassment experiment with different corporations. One of the exercises she employed was doing role reversal, the men would play the role of female workers and Bravo would play the role of the male boss.^[19] Through this exercise, Bravo would show that the men knew they were making their female coworkers uncomfortable and were simply exercising their power.^[15]

See also

• Women's rights

References

Further reading

• Cassedy, Ellen (September 6, 2022). Working 9 to 5: A Women's Movement, a Labor Union, and the Iconic Movie. Chicago Review Press.

External links

• Official website
• 9to5, National Association of Working Women (U.S.) Records. Schlesinger Library Archived 2012-05-09 at the Wayback Machine, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
• 9to5, National Association of Working Women (U.S.). Milwaukee Chapter Records. Schlesinger Library Archived 2012-05-09 at the Wayback Machine, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.