THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Ellen Cassedy
“I’ve always been hungry to be connected to the women who came before me.”
Author, Speechwriter, co-founder and longtime leader of 9 to 5, the national association of women office workers. Author of Working 9 to 5: A women’s movement, a labor union, and the iconic movie (foreword by Jane Fonda); 9 to 5: The Working Woman’s Guide to Office Survival with Karen Nussbaum; The 9 to 5 Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment with Ellen Bravo; and We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust. Columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and a speechwriter in the Clinton Administration.
Interviewed by Mary Jean Collins, VFA Historian, July 2022
Photo 1. Ellen, speaking in 1981. Photo 2. Working 9 to 5.
More About Ellen:
- Ellen Cassedy’s official website
- Select Interviews and Films
- “9to5: The Story of a Movement,” with Ellen Cassedy, Janet Selcer, Dorine Levasseur and Darlene Lombos, moderated by Tina Martin, WORLD Channel
- Ellen Cassedy, Yiddish translator, was interviewed by Christa Whitney, The Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project, May 9th, 2019
- In Search of Understanding: Interview with Ellen Cassedy, from Lithuanian Heritage, September/October 2012
- Beautiful Hills of Brooklyn, starring Joanna Merlin and directed by Ragnar Freidank. The film was written by Joanna Merlin and Ragnar Freidank, based on the play by Ellen Cassedy.
- Archives
- Records of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women, 1972-1980
- SEIU District 925 Legacy Project, Oral History Transcript: Ellen Cassedy, Interviewed by Ann Froines, November 6, 2005
- SEIU District 925 Legacy Project, Oral History Transcript: Ellen Cassedy, Karen Nussbaum, and Debbie Schneider, Interviewed by Ann Froines, November 1, 2005
- Midwest Academy (Chicago, Ill.) records, 1963-1990
- Cited in Barbara Love’s book, Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975, page 77