User:Kac1418/9to5

Karen Nussbaum, founder of the 9to5 Movement

History

The group has its origins in the December 1972 publication of “9to5: Newsletter for Boston Area Office Workers." The goal of the newsletter was to reach all clerical workers, not just women. 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.

Before the development of the movement, there had already been some laws passed to eliminate sex-based discrimination in the workplace. These laws being the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. For example, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which prohibited discrimination in the workplace based on sex or sexual orientation. Additionally, it allowed for women to develop complaints and eventually attempt to sue their employers if they were to feel as though they were being discriminated against. Despite this, women in the workplace still felt underrepresented and under appreciated.

Women who joined the 9to5 movement started as women who were first hand witnesses of the misogyny and mistreatment of women in the workplace. Secretaries like Fran Cicchetti, a Boston insurance secretary, were made false promises by their bosses leading them to expect training for new tasks in their jobs and possible promotions. When Cicchetti asked her boss about the promise he had made, her boss promoted a male to the new title. This brought new ideas that women should not get treated like this in the workplace and Cicchetti became an activist. As one of the earliest 9to5 activists, she helped join forces with other women fighting the same issues and created the “organization for women office workers.” Eventually this turned into the 9to5 movement where Fran became the head of the finance committee and lobbied with the insurance commissioner to create new standards on job postings and promotions.

The terms "office wife" and "office maid" were also very common within the work place. Both of these terms made women feel disrespected and blurred the line between professional and inappropriate relationships of boss and secretary.

Hearing on Working Conditions of Women Office Workers

Women that were members of the 9to5 movement gathered together in meetings to discuss their goals as part of the organization and movement. Between two meetings, the group had several women leave because they did not believe their needs were going to get met through this bill they were writing to get passed. During these meetings, women worked together to write the Bill of Rights for Women office workers. African American women wanted a priority set to provide childcare for their children during the workday. Founders of the 9to5 movement chose not to include this in their list of conditions for women in the workplace because they did not believe they could win childcare. In April 1974, hundreds of women witnessed the group stand and testify at the "Hearing on the Working Conditions of Women Office Workers" in Boston. This Bill was then signed and brought women and workers rights for descriptive, written job descriptions, salary reviews, and respect in the office. This also required the equal benefits between men and women. Eventually this win would bring more fight for higher and equal pay and wages.

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.

National Secretaries Day

The 9to5 movement was instrumental in addressing the grievances of women and their relationships with their male counterparts in the workplace. National Secretaries Day was a topic brought up in their movement because it was a day for male bosses to take their female secretaries out for the day. The women would be given roses by their bosses as well as a meal. The male interpretation of this day was that bosses were adequately recognizing their secretaries. On the contrary, female secretaries felt as though they were treated adequately for one day, but the rest of their working hours consisted of unfair and inappropriate boss and secretary relationships. The members of 9to5 eventually coined phrases such as "raises not roses" in order to combat National Secretaries Day and create a call to action.

Development and Influence

Tactics

The members of the 9to5 Movement often used unorthodox tactic to carry out their efforts. Along with lawsuits and petitions, public relations efforts were some of the most influential aspects of the entire movement. There were demands for an office "Bill of Rights" when attention was heavily focused on the National Secretaries Day debate. Additionally, members of the 9to5 Movement also conducted "worst boss contests." The contests told stories of secretaries who were mistreated by their bosses in an unprofessional manner. Karen Nussbaum used these "worst boss contests" to spread stories of secretaries who were fired due to boss outbursts rather than work ethic complications.

Between Nussbaum and Cassedy developing the idea of creating a labor organization group was not the goal. Originally, they set out to help stand with women in social struggles and antiwar movements. When they ran low on money while helping fight these struggles, they got jobs as secretaries and saw first hand the mistreatment of women, bringing this new idea of a labor organization to Harvard, forming the Women Office Workers at Harvard.

Continued Efforts

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). Additionally, they have also used the media to draw attention to several sexual harassment cases in the 1990s.

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. The gender wage gap was never completely closed by the end of the century but the tolerance of working in the office for women became bearable. Their jobs were no longer demeaning and women experienced far less sexism.

Local 925

The 9to5 Movement eventually joined its sister movement, Local 925 in order to create a way for women to obtain insurance and banking, Specifically, they joined with clerical workers because District 65 would often target them. Together, they worked to eliminate discriminatory pay and promote unionization.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment was first coined by a radical feminist activist Lin Farley after she encountered and learned about the Carmita Woods case.