Patricia Resnick

Overview

Patricia Resnick is presented as the writer who helped turn real clerical workers’ stories into the script of 9 to 5.

Current Profile

The episode positions Resnick as a researcher-writer rather than a detached gag writer. Because she had not worked in a clerical job, she spent time with secretaries at a downtown Los Angeles insurance company and observed the office hierarchy that the film would later exaggerate into comedy.

Her profile also mirrors the film’s own critique. Resnick inserted practical reforms such as job sharing and workplace child care, but she says director Colin Higgins kept her off the set. The episode uses that experience as a behind-the-scenes example of men taking credit or control over women’s work.

Key Characteristics

• Screenwriter who translated real clerical-worker experiences into workplace comedy.
• Researcher who observed office hierarchy directly before writing from the material.
• Interpreter of Gendered Office Hierarchy through sex-segregated roles, promotion exclusion, and boss power.
• Writer who embedded practical reforms, including job sharing and child care, into the film’s fantasy.
• Behind-the-scenes example of the same credit-taking and exclusion problem the movie criticized.

Evidence

• Project entry: Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” the true story behind the anthem (bonus) says Resnick joined the project after Jane Fonda had collected worker material.
• Office research: Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” the true story behind the anthem (bonus) says Resnick spent time with secretaries at a downtown Los Angeles insurance company because she had not held a clerical job.
• Gender hierarchy: Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” the true story behind the anthem (bonus) says she observed lower-level workers as women and bosses as men, with no women in upper-level positions.
• Character source: Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” the true story behind the anthem (bonus) says a real worker falsely rumored to be sleeping with her boss inspired Dolly Parton’s character.
• Production qualification: Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” the true story behind the anthem (bonus) says Resnick compared being kept off set to the film’s theme of men taking credit for women’s work.

Qualifications

The page relies on Resnick’s role as reported in one episode and does not adjudicate full screenplay credit, production history, or every creative decision in the finished film.

What Changed

• Created a Patricia Resnick page for the film-writing and workplace-research branch.

Relationships

• Jane Fonda - project initiator and material collector.
• 9 to 5 - film whose script Resnick helped shape.
• Dolly Parton - performer whose character drew from a real office rumor.
• Gendered Office Hierarchy - workplace structure Resnick observed and dramatized.
• Sexual Harassment Naming Lag - naming boundary around harassment depicted in the film.