About
Ellen Cassedy is the author of “Working 9 to 5: A women's movement, a labor union, and the iconic movie” (Chicago Review Press, 2022). She was a founder and longtime leader of the 9 to 5 movement. She is the co-author of “9 to 5: The Working Woman’s Guide to Office Survival” (Viking Penguin, 1983) and “The 9 to 5 Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment” (John Wiley & Sons, 1992. She is the author of “We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust” (University of Nebraska Press, 2012). Her literary translations from Yiddish include "Oedipus in Brooklyn and other stories by Blume Lempel (with Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, Mandel Vilar Press/Dryad Press, 2016) and "On the Landing: Stories by Yenta Mash (Northern Illinois University Press, 2018). She is the recipient of the Grub Street National Book Prize for Non-fiction and the Modern Language Association's Leviant Memorial Prize in Yiddish Studies, among other awards. She was a speechwriter in the Clinton administration and a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News.
Featured Work
Working 9 to 5: A women's movement, a labor union, and the iconic movie
9 to 5 wasn’t just a comic film – it was a movement built by working women. Ellen Cassedy helped lead the movement, and she tells the story.
In 1973 in Boston, ten women office workers started sitting in a circle and sharing their job problems. In a few short years, they built a nationwide movement that united people of diverse races, classes, and ages. They took on the corporate titans. They leafleted, filed lawsuits, and started a woman-led union. They won millions of dollars in back pay and helped make sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination illegal. They inspired a hit Hollywood movie and Dolly Parton’s enduring anthem.
As Ellen and her friends caught the wave of unrest in the huge but overlooked clerical sector of the economy, they surprised themselves and surprised the world. Coming of age in the working women’s movement, Ellen found her voice and her power. Her story includes a bold, challenging best friend, a romance paralleling the battle at the workplace, and plenty of funny moments.
Today, the 9 to 5 organization is still reaching out to women in every state. A surge in labor activism is sweeping the country. And countless bosses have learned to make their own coffee.
