Timing is a fascinating thing. It is an oft-spoken-of topic when it comes to the Faith life. Those who care about their relationship with God spend a lot of time wondering if the moment for doing practically anything is right and/or in line with His will. It is a great thing to wonder about, but sometimes the desire to align with the Almighty can paralyze a person. We can also attribute God’s direct intervention to the smallest of events. To be clear, nothing happens without Him being the cause in some fashion. Not to get too far into the theological weeds, but the Catholic Church teaches that a lot of this can be catalogued as God’s permissive will. Unlike His perfect will, which pertains more to morality, things happen because He gives people permission to let them be so. Either way, you can tell me whether Dolly Parton’s recent passing, the fact that there is currently a tropical storm in the Atlantic Ocean called Dolly, or 9 to 5 (1980) suddenly being available to stream on Amazon Prime are related.

It is no coincidence that Judy Bernly (Jane Fonda) now has to work 9 to 5. Her husband, Dick (Lawrence Pressman), has left her for his secretary, forcing Judy, who has spent her married life as a homemaker, to find a job of her own. She is hired by Consolidated Companies, where veteran employee Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin) shows her around and introduces her to the peculiarities of office life. Chief among them is their boss, Franklin Hart Jr. (Dabney Coleman), whom Violet accurately describes as a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot. Violet has worked for the company longer than Franklin and even trained him, but he routinely takes credit for her ideas and passes her over for promotions in favor of men. His personal secretary, Doralee Rhodes (Dolly Parton), has another problem. Franklin continually makes advances toward the happily married woman while telling everyone else that the two of them are having an affair. This explains why the other women have been cold toward Doralee, who has no idea what Franklin has been saying. When Violet is again denied a promotion, the truth about the rumor comes out, and Doralee confronts Franklin, threatening to turn one of her guns on him if he continues his behavior. Judy joins their rebellion after Franklin fires another employee over a minor workplace infraction reported by his devoted snoop, Roz Keith (Elizabeth Wilson). The three women leave work, have a few drinks, and eventually wind up at Doralee’s house smoking marijuana. Each fantasizes about getting rid of Franklin: Judy hunts him through the office, Doralee turns his sexual harassment back on him before hog-tying him, and Violet imagines herself as a sort of Snow White while poisoning his coffee. None of this is especially Christian behavior, of course, but fantasies soon become the least of their problems. The next day, Violet accidentally mistakes rat poison for artificial sweetener and puts it in Franklin’s coffee. Before he can drink it, his faulty desk chair sends him crashing into a credenza, and he is taken to the hospital. Violet discovers her mistake and assumes she has poisoned him. At the hospital, the women overhear that a man has died from strychnine and conclude that Franklin is dead. In a panic, they steal what they think is his body to prevent an autopsy, only to discover after stuffing it into Violet’s trunk that they have taken the wrong corpse. They return it to the hospital, and the following morning are astonished when Franklin arrives at work alive. Unfortunately, Roz overhears them discussing what happened and reports it to Franklin. He uses the information to blackmail Doralee, offering not to call the police if she sleeps with him. Doralee responds by tying him up with telephone cord, and when he later tries to escape, Judy fires a gun at him. Realizing they have now made their situation considerably worse, the women take Franklin prisoner in his home while trying to find leverage against him. They discover that he has been embezzling from Consolidated by selling company inventory and pocketing the money. Violet orders records that should prove it, but they will take weeks to arrive. Thus begins the strangest work-from-home arrangement imaginable. Franklin is kept suspended in a harness attached to his garage-door opener while Judy, Violet, and Doralee run his department. With their boss absent, they institute flexible hours, job sharing, equal pay, an alcohol rehabilitation program, and an on-site daycare center. Employee morale improves, as does productivity. They even get Roz out of the way by sending her to France for language training. The plan collapses when Franklin’s wife, Missy (Marian Mercer), returns unexpectedly and frees him. Franklin quickly replaces the inventory he stole, destroying the women’s evidence, and resumes his duties. He brings Judy, Violet, and Doralee to his office intending to have them arrested, but before he can do so, Consolidated chairman Russell Tinsworthy (Sterling Hayden) arrives. He is delighted by the changes supposedly instituted by Franklin because productivity has risen dramatically. The women cannot take credit without admitting what they have done, but corporate bureaucracy recognizes their improvements. Russell rewards Franklin by sending him to Brazil for several years to improve operations there. Franklin can hardly object without undermining the success for which he is receiving credit, so the three women are saved. The closing titles reveal that Violet is eventually promoted to vice president, Judy marries the Xerox representative, Doralee leaves Consolidated and becomes a country-and-western singer, and Franklin is kidnapped by Amazons in the Brazilian jungle and never heard from again.

It is not exactly the Sermon on the Mount as a model for resolving workplace disputes, but after everything Franklin puts these women through in 9 to 5, one can understand why they are not sorry to see him go. Whenever I see such blatant examples of sexism, I am often reminded of how different the Catholic world is. The premise in the film is that women, particularly in Franklin’s eyes, are incapable of flourishing in the business world. It is worse for Doralee, who is treated as little more than a sexual object. Catholicism has a considerably different view of the female role in society. Granted, there are plenty of mothers who raise wonderful families in the Faith. That is an incredible calling, and I pray that more women answer that call if that is what God intends for them. However, that is not the only path He has set out for them. With that, I give you the Cistercian sisters, also known as Trappists, of Mount St. Mary’s Abbey in Wrentham, Massachusetts. As Cistercians, they are accustomed to work, following the maxim associated with St. Benedict, the father of Western monasticism: “ora et labora,” prayer and work. More specifically, work is prayer. Starting in 1949, these women have built a community where their labor sustains their relationship with God, and vice versa. Outside of some materials needed to get their candy business started, they did everything themselves, while also maintaining a small farm and attending to their shared needs. Because the movie is a comedy, it is somewhat difficult to see these cinematic cousins in the same vein as the Trappist nuns, but it is not because of any inability or unwillingness to work. They are held back by entrenched values that are antiquated and decidedly not Christian.

Despite 9 to 5 being somewhat more forward-thinking, particularly for being released in 1980, there is some antiquation to it. In one of the final scenes, Russell interrupts his praise of Violet’s changes to say that they will be stopping short of implementing equal pay. At any rate, though this is much sillier than I expected, if you are in the mood for some Dolly nostalgia, you could do worse.