# 9 to 5 x Labour Feminism with Zena Sharman

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/material-girls-46568/9-to-5-x-labour-feminism-with-zena-sharman
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/material-girls-46568/9-to-5-x-labour-feminism-with-zena-sharman.md
Podcast: [Material Girls](https://stenobird.com/podcast/material-girls-46568)
Published: 2026-03-10T16:23:42+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/oh-witch-please/episodes/9-to-5-x-labour-feminism-with-zena-sharman
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/oh-witch-please/e/69b0458ea1c9931634ba5176/media.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/material-girls-46568/episodes/9-to-5-x-labour-feminism-with-zena-sharman
Duration seconds: 4036

## Resource

This week we are joined by the incomparable Zena Sharman (she/her). Zena is an essayist and non-fiction writer who is a fan and student of the film 9 to 5 (1980). If you don't know the movie, you almost certainly know the song of the same name written and performed by one of its stars, Dolly Parton. And if you don't know the song, you most definitely know the two other leads of the movie: Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda! And if you don't know them, well hell, we can't wait to introduce you! In the episode, Hannah and Zena lead us through a history of the feminist labour organizing that directly led to the film's creation. They introduce us to Karen Nussbaum who co-founded an organization called 9to5 in the early 1970s. Nussbaum and Jane Fonda became friends and allies through anti-Vietnam war organizing and developed 9 to 5 (the film) in effort to surface the struggle of working women at the time. Hannah then draws on work from historian Dorothy Sue Cobble who argues that contemporary disillusionment about feminism has a lot to do with historical amnesia about the actual diversity of feminist organizing. Hannah suggests that the 1980 screwball comedy 9 to 5 , with its depiction of women from notably different backgrounds and with pointedly different gender presentations, might be exactly the feminist text we need in our present political moment. The conversation also touches on queer-coded characters in the story and the super queer team behind the film. Come for the love of Dolly Parton and stay for the rich conversation about labour organizing, cultural consumption, moral purity and coalition building! More Zena Zena is the editor of several anthologies, including The Care We Dream Of: Liberatory & Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Health and Lambda Literary Award-w…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/material-girls-46568/episodes/9-to-5-x-labour-feminism-with-zena-sharman/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/material-girls-46568/9-to-5-x-labour-feminism-with-zena-sharman.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.