9to5

The year was 1973. Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman, was at the top of the charts. The ‘Women’s Movement’ was in full swing. Change was in the wind.

In Boston, a group of female office workers started talking about how they were treated at work. They talked about how men made more money than they did for the same job. They talked about how their male co-workers could get away with making passes at them, and worse. And they talked about how when their kids got sick they couldn’t get time off without endangering their jobs.

These women decided enough was enough. They felt feisty, empowered and fed up. They decided to fight for fair pay and equal treatment. They started 9to5 and inspired the hit move and song.

Today 9to5 is one of the largest, most respected national membership organizations of working women in the U.S., dedicated to putting working women’s issues on the public agenda. 9to5 is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

We’ve grown from our Boston roots into a national organization with members all over the country. We’re mostly women, many of us working two jobs or more to make ends meet for our families.

By working together we’ve made things a lot better for women and working families. We’ve worked for and won major national policies including:

• the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act
• the Civil Rights Act of 1991
• the Family Medical Leave Act
• the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

These victories are a good start, but we’ve got more work to do. There are still too many hardworking Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, straining to support their families.