They also wanted to use their burgeoning solidarity to improve their standing in the workplace. They started trying to organize office workers and secretaries, a movement that eventually coalesced into a formal union chapter called SEIU Local 925.
They also wanted to use their burgeoning solidarity to improve their standing in the workplace.
They started trying to organize office workers and secretaries, a movement that eventually coalesced into a formal union chapter called SEIU Local 925.
When this organizing campaign caught the eye of Jane Fonda, it inspired the 1980 film 9 to 5, a runaway success that starred the late Dolly Parton—in her first major acting role—alongside Fonda and Lily Tomlin.
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They also wanted to use their burgeoning solidarity to improve their standing in the workplace. They started trying to organize office workers and secretaries, a movement that eventually coalesced into a formal union chapter called SEIU Local 925. When this organizing campaign caught the eye of Jane Fonda, it inspired the 1980 film 9 to 5, a runaway success that starred the late Dolly Parton—in her first major acting role—alongside Fonda and Lily Tomlin.
As they compared notes, they found that they had a lot in common. "They all had stories to tell of not being paid as much as men in their offices, of having their male supervisors take their ideas and take credit for them," says Ileen DeVault, a professor of labor history at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. (In a meta moment, Parton says she jumped at the opportunity when she read the 9 to 5 script: "I knew instantly that I should do it—I knew that it was a career move," she told Rolling Stone in a 1980 interview.) In the film, Parton plays Doralee Rhodes, the secretary to a sexist boss who frequently ha...
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