Karen Nussbaum

And it goes on the history of how this movie came to be and how in 1973, a group of secretaries formed a women's labor organization called themselves 9 to 5.

And it started with Karen Nussbaum, who Jane Fonda became friends with.

They were both active in the – war movement and and so that's how this this idea came and so the fact that we open with jane fonda's character and she's getting hired um i think she's a good place to start okay yeah

i did like in the end at the credits i don't know if you saw it but it says The producer gratefully acknowledges the help and encouragement of working women, the National Association of Office Workers, in the making of this film.

Next up, Green and Red, a frequent flyer here on the Weekly.

And they caught up with an old friend of mine, Karen Nussbaum.

Karen gives a really sort of compelling history of both the film of her work organising with Nine to Five, and how the film both reflected the realities of office, of clerical work for many women at that time, and how it really galvanised the work of organising at the same time, how there was this strong sort of interplay between what women were experiencing in their offices and how that was reflected in the film.

And, you know, Dolly Parton has a part to play, Jane Fonda has a, actually quite a bigger part to play.

But today we're going to talk about her importance to working women.

And so in this episode, we'll be talking about Dolly Parton, 9 to 5. and the labor movement that inspired the film, which is also called 9 to 5.

And so joining us is Karen Nussbaum, who is the co-founder of the pioneering labor feminist organization 9 to 5.

Karen is also a board member of Working America and writes on women, labor, politics, and culture.

And that's kind of where it started out until eventually the founders, let me look up their names really quick.

The founders names are Ellen Cassidy and Karen Nussbaum.

And they're in the documentary along with a lot of other women.

And they decided to, you know, like push back and do a bunch of stuff.

And it won two Grammy Awards for Country Song of the Year and Female Country Vocal of the Year.

That's awesome.

Which is... really cool some quotes that I found about the song that I really liked ones from Karen Nussbaum she said I think the song is brilliant it starts with pride pour myself a cup of ambition it goes to grievances barely getting by it then goes to class conflict you're just a step on the boss man's ladder and then it ends with collective power in the same boat with a lot of your friends so in the space of this wildly popular song with the great beat Dolly Parton just puts it all together by herself And then this other quote, nine to five became an anthem for working women, uniting women together under one battle cry for fair working conditions.

A New York magazine writer, Rebecca Traster commented, nine to five is simultaneously a song of an angry complaint and immense good cheer.

Back in the 70s, the anti-Vietnam War movement, our movement was called the Indochina Peace Campaign.

And one of my colleagues was Karen Nussbaum, an activist from Boston.

And her day job was organizing women office workers.

And every time she'd see me, she'd tell me stories about the kind of things that women office workers had to put up with.

Before the movie, before the song, and before three women kidnapped their boss in a comedy, 9 to 5 was the name office workers had chosen for organizing themselves.

In Boston in the early 1970s, Ellen Cassidy and Karen Nussbaum were working as secretaries at Harvard.

Along with other employees, they began by comparing notes on pay and working conditions.

A newsletter appeared in December 1972, and the organization 9to5 took shape the following year.

Part of its effectiveness came from that shift in scale.

Humiliations individual women had assumed they simply had to endure could now be documented as workplace practices and challenged collectively.

Jane Fonda knew Karen Nussbaum.

After listening to stories from members of 9to5, she began developing a film about office workers.