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TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX<\/p>\n
Fed up with their lowly professional status, office workers Dolly Parton (from left), \tLily Tomlin and Jane Fonda commiserate over drinks in the 1980 hit comedy 9 to 5.<\/p>\n
I expected a funny, somewhat dated movie about three women getting revenge on an awful boss. What I didn\u2019t expect was to spend the next two hours thinking about how much has changed in the workplace since 1980 \u2014 and how much really hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
9 to 5 stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Parton as women working in an office under an arrogant, sexist boss. <\/p>\n
The movie was inspired by the real 9to5 movement in the 1970s, which began with female clerical workers organizing around issues including unfair pay, lack of advancement and sexual harassment. At the time, those were not conversations that were happening openly in every workplace. For many women, the movie was a wake-up call because they recognized their own experiences in it.<\/p>\n
Watching it 46 years later, I found myself doing something I suspect many HR people do when watching workplace movies: I kept stopping the movie in my head and thinking, \u201cThat would absolutely be an HR issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was harassment. There was favouritism. There was unequal treatment. There were assumptions about women\u2019s abilities and ambitions. There was a boss who took credit for other people\u2019s work and created an environment where people were afraid to speak up. There were women doing the work while men received the recognition.<\/p>\n
It was exaggerated for comedy, but not so exaggerated that it was difficult to believe.<\/p>\n
And then there were the solutions.<\/p>\n
The women eventually introduce changes that we still talk about today as though they are innovative workplace ideas: flexible hours, job sharing, better opportunities for women, equal pay, child care and programs to support employees dealing with addiction.<\/p>\n
These are not presented as outrageous demands. They are presented as things that might make the workplace function better for the people who actually work there.<\/p>\n
Yet, here we are in 2026, and some of those ideas still aren\u2019t common.<\/p>\n
We have spent decades talking about work-life balance. We talk about flexibility, working parents, employee well-being, inclusion and creating workplaces where people can be successful at work without sacrificing their entire lives outside of it. We\u2019ve become much better at understanding the relationship between a person\u2019s life and their ability to succeed at work.<\/p>\n
But having the language for something doesn\u2019t necessarily mean we\u2019ve solved it.<\/p>\n
Flexible work arrangements can still depend heavily on the individual manager. Job sharing remains relatively uncommon. Child care is still a significant barrier for many working parents. Women continue to navigate issues around advancement, pay and leadership. And employees are still sometimes expected to prove their commitment by being available at all hours, even when the work itself could be organized differently.<\/p>\n
So I found myself watching this movie and thinking: how is it possible that some of the workplace improvements portrayed as progressive in 1980 can still feel progressive today?<\/p>\n
Of course, a tremendous amount has changed. We have legislation and human rights protections that provide employees with rights that simply weren\u2019t understood or enforced decades ago. We have workplace harassment policies, accommodation obligations, employment standards and much greater awareness of discrimination. Employers are generally much more conscious of the importance of creating respectful workplaces.<\/p>\n
But policies don\u2019t automatically create good workplaces. People do.<\/p>\n
And that brings me to Dolly Parton.<\/p>\n
I have always appreciated Parton, but watching her in 9 to 5 made me look at her a little differently. Her character, Doralee Rhodes, is funny, warm, glamorous and underestimated. Her boss assumes because she is attractive and friendly, she must also be easy to dismiss. Instead, she proves herself to be smart, capable and much tougher than anyone expected.<\/p>\n
What struck me was Parton didn\u2019t have to become someone else to make the point. She didn\u2019t have to stop being feminine. She didn\u2019t have to become stern or intimidating. She didn\u2019t have to adopt some stereotypical image of what a powerful woman was supposed to look like. She was Dolly Parton. And somehow, that made the message even more powerful.<\/p>\n
Parton (who died last month at age 80) built an extraordinary career (49 studio albums, plus a lengthy TV and film resum\u00e9) while consistently leading with kindness, acceptance, humility and generosity. She was enormously successful without seeming to need other people to feel unsuccessful. She was confident without making confidence look like arrogance. She was ambitious without making ambition her entire personality.<\/p>\n
In HR, we talk a lot about accountability, difficult conversations,
\nperformance management, setting expectations and dealing with conflict. All of those things matter. Sometimes, being a good leader means making a difficult decision or telling someone something they don\u2019t want to hear.<\/p>\n
But kindness isn\u2019t the opposite of accountability. Humility isn\u2019t the opposite of confidence. And being generous doesn\u2019t mean you aren\u2019t ambitious.<\/p>\n
Parton seemed to understand you could be successful and still make room for other people.<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s part of the reason she connected with so many people over so many decades. She never seemed particularly interested in making success feel exclusive. She made people feel welcome and complicated things feel accessible. She laughed at herself and stood up for herself without making anyone else feel small.<\/p>\n
That is a good leadership lesson.<\/p>\n
There is also something particularly interesting about having Parton play a working woman in 9 to 5. She wasn\u2019t what everyone might have expected when they thought about someone challenging workplace stereotypes. She was glamorous and unapologetically feminine. She had a distinctive voice and appearance, and was incredibly smart.<\/p>\n
That combination challenged assumptions about what intelligence and competence were supposed to look like.<\/p>\n
Watching the movie now, I think that\u2019s part of its lasting appeal. It wasn\u2019t just telling women they should demand better treatment. It was showing there wasn\u2019t just one way to be a strong woman at work.<\/p>\n
Fonda\u2019s, Tomlin\u2019s and Parton\u2019s characters were completely different. They didn\u2019t need to become the same person to work together. They brought different personalities, strengths and experiences to the problem. Together, they were stronger than they were individually.<\/p>\n
That feels relevant today, too.<\/p>\n
Maybe the biggest lesson I took from 9 to 5 isn\u2019t about revenge or even workplace sexism. It\u2019s about questioning the things we accept simply because they have always been done that way.<\/p>\n
And perhaps that is why a 1980 movie still feels surprisingly relevant in 2026.<\/p>\n
Some of it made me laugh because it was so dated. Some of it made me uncomfortable because it wasn\u2019t dated enough. And some of it made me wonder why we haven\u2019t gotten further.<\/p>\n
But mostly, I finished the movie thinking about how powerful it is when someone can make people listen.<\/p>\n
Parton took serious issues about women and work and helped put them in the spotlight through a comedy, character, and song people couldn\u2019t stop singing. She made the message entertaining without making it meaningless.<\/p>\n
The movie (the second-highest grossing film of 1980 in the U.S. behind Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back) didn\u2019t solve workplace inequality. Obviously, no movie could. But it helped people see it \u2014 and sometimes seeing a problem is the beginning of changing it.<\/p>\n
As an HR professional, I spend a lot of time thinking about what makes a workplace healthy, fair and sustainable. We have more research, more policies and more sophisticated tools than the women in 9 to 5 could ever have imagined.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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But maybe we could still use a little more of what Parton brought to the table: kindness, humility, generosity, acceptance and the confidence to be yourself.<\/p>\n
Tory McNally, CPHR, B.Sc., vice-president, <\/p>\n
professional services at TIPI Legacy HR+ <\/p>\n
(formerly Legacy Bowes), is a human resource <\/p>\n
consultant, relationship builder and problem solver. She can be reached at tmcnally@tipipartners.com<\/p>\n
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Tory McNally Tory McNally, CPHR, BSc., vice-president, professional services at TIPI Legacy HR+ (formerly Legacy Bowes), is a human resource consultant, strategic thinker and problem solver. Read more about Tory<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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