Fast Food Women

Anne Lewis. 1991. 3/4" U-matic. 

Fast Food Women takes an inside look at the lives of the women who fry chicken, make pizzas, and flip burgers at four different fast food restaurants in Eastern Kentucky. These women, mostly middle-aged and raising children, are often the sole income source for their families. They work for wages barely above the minimum wage, have trouble getting full-time hours because of their employers' scheduling policies, and are without health care and other benefits. Analysis of the way fast food jobs systematically dehumanize and devalue the worker is intercut with comments from human resource managers at the Druther’s chain, while scenes of women at work round out this incisive, sometimes troubling look at life on the other side of the counter.

“A provocative and eye-opening work … It drew my students into an intense and lengthy discussion about issues of equity and employment.”— Washington and Lee University 

“The reality of daily family life for thousands of Americans is portrayed as these working women tell their stories — and hearing these stories is effective and can change lives.”— Mountain Empire Community College 

"A penetrating look at social and economic conditions and the changing roles of women in the workplace.”— Radford University  

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