Ellen Cassedy was a founder and longtime leader of 9 to 5, the national association of women office workers. Working 9 to 5 is her first-person account of this exciting movement, which began in the early 1970’s, mobilizing women across the country to organize for rights and respect on the job. The movement inspired Jane Fonda’s hit movie and Dolly Parton’s enduring anthem. 9 to 5 is still active today.

Starting out in Boston in 1973, the women of 9 to 5 built a nationwide feminist 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.

When women rose up to win rights and respect at the office, they transformed workplaces throughout America. Along the way came Dolly Parton’s toe-tapping song and the movie inspired by their work.

Ellen appears in the documentaries “9 to 5: The Story Of A Movement” and “Still Working 9 to 5.”

Ellen is the award-winning author of We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust, in which her journey to connect with her Jewish family roots expands into a wider quest. She explores how people in Lithuania are engaging with their Nazi and Soviet past in order to move toward a more tolerant future. Winner of the Grub Street National Book Prize for Nonfiction, shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing.