INTRODUCTION

In the 1980 movie Nine to Five, Dabney Coleman plays the perfect feminist foil. He's that boss. The one who propositions his secretary, takes credit for the work of his female subordinates, and never met a sex-based stereotype he didn't pick over the truth staring him in the face. Coleman's character, Mr. Hart, unleashes his sexism most intensely on three women at the office – Lily Tomlin (Violet), a long-suffering widow who has inched up the ladder while raising four kids on her own; Jane Fonda (Judy), a middle-aged divorcée returning to work after years as a housewife; and Dolly Parton (Doralee), the buxom secretary whose southern mix of sweetness and sass forces Mr. Hart to work for his gropes and advances. And he relies on the most unwomanly of women – Roz – to be his eyes and ears, especially in the ladies’ room where the others might meet and complain.

Fast-paced dialogue and short cuts of the physical and hierarchical layout of Consolidated, a business of an unspecified nature, make clear in just a few minutes that this is a man's world. No “personal items left in view” on the cubicle desks, Roz chastises, because Mr. Hart says an “office that looks efficient is efficient.” When showing Judy around on her first day, Violet tells her that she has “never seen anyone leapfrog so fast to the top,” and that she has “the bad back to prove it.” He is now Violet's boss, but he was once her trainee.

Showing off his managerial skills to the very green Judy, Mr. Hart describes his “philosophy of business” as “teamwork.” But it is not a concept he thinks they'll ever fully understand. “You girls, of course, never got a chance to play football or baseball…and I've always felt that's unfortunate, because I think it is the best place to learn what teamwork is about.” He promises not to bore them with a “long harangue,” but just asks for their faith in his philosophy and leadership. “If we all work together, we can cut the balls off the competition and be sitting pretty.” Judy politely says she's happy to be working there, and he compliments her on being “a welcome addition, and a damn pretty one, too.”