Editing Working Girl (section)

==Plot==
Tess McGill is a working-class [[Irish Americans|Irish-American]] woman from [[Staten Island]] who dreams of climbing the [[Career ladder|corporate ladder]] to an executive position. Despite holding a business degree earned through evening classes, her boss and male co-workers at the [[Stockbroker|stockbroker firm]] in [[lower Manhattan]] where she works as a secretary treat her like a [[bimbo]], even though they benefit from her intelligence and business instincts. After reaching her limit with her boss's humiliations, Tess dramatically quits.

Tess then lands a job as an administrative assistant to Katharine Parker, a young associate at Penny Marsh, a mergers and acquisitions firm. At first, Katharine seems supportive of Tess, encouraging her to share ideas, but eventually tells Tess her proposed purchase of a radio network by Trask Industries would not work out.

When Katharine breaks her leg skiing, she asks Tess to house-sit. While there, Tess discovers meeting notes that reveal Katharine plans to pass off the Trask Industries idea as her own. She later returns home to find her live-in boyfriend having sex with another woman. He attempts to reconcile and proposes marriage, but she responds ambivalently, and they end things. With her boss away, Tess decides to use Katharine's connections and clothes to move ahead with her merger plans. With the help of her friend Cyn, Tess cuts her hair and borrows Katherine's stylish clothing to look more professional. Tess schedules a meeting with Jack Trainer, a mergers and acquisitions associate from another company. The night before, she attends a dinner on Katharine's behalf, hosted by Trainer's firm in an attempt to say hello prior to their meeting. Trainer is attracted to and approaches Tess at the bar but does not reveal his name, even after she inquires whether he knows a Jack Trainer. Tess eventually leaves and he follows, taking her back to his apartment after she passes out in a cab from a combination of Valium and alcohol.

Tess leaves early the next morning, believing them to have slept together, to attend her meeting with Trainer and is surprised to see he is the man from the previous night. They both feign non-recognition. Although Tess lacks confidence during the meeting with Trainer and his associates and leaves thinking it was a failure, Jack soon arrives at her office, telling her they did not sleep together and that he wants to move forward with her idea. Together, they prepare the financials for the merger proposal, and they give in to their attraction, ending up in bed. However, Tess is tempted to confess the truth about the idea's origins, but she demurs after discovering Jack is also involved with Katharine, whom he planned to break up with before her injury.

Katharine returns home on the day of the merger meeting, and while Tess is helping her get settled, Katharine brings up the Trask merger, saying she was intending to take it to Jack and give Tess credit eventually, but was restricted due to Jack's strict ethical code preventing him from looking at other's work without verifying the source after being accused of stealing himself. Jack eventually arrives to end things with Katharine. Tess accidentally leaves her appointment book in Katharine's apartment before leaving for the same meeting, leading to Katharine discovering Tess's deception.

At the meeting, Tess asks Jack whether he has such an ethical code, and he denies this or that he was ever accused of stealing. Katharine confronts Tess during the meeting, outing her as her secretary and accusing her of stealing the idea. Tess feels she cannot defend herself and leaves, apologizing profusely. Days later, Tess is offered an entry-level job with Trask Industries after Trask confronts Katharine, who is unable to explain where she got the merger idea and promises to have her fired for her actions. Jack and Tess embrace and start a relationship.

On her first day at Trask, Tess meets a colleague named Alice, who Tess initially assumes will be her new boss but who she then realizes is actually her (Tess's) secretary. Tess insists they work together as colleagues, showing she will be very different from Katharine. Finally, Tess calls her friend Cyn from her own office to tell her that she has made it.