Schneider's mother was a high school English teacher, and her dad was a corporate tax attorney.
After graduating college, she became a clerical worker at Cahner's Publishing company, where she tabulated market survey results.
[3] The 9to5 movement was originally started by a group of office workers in Boston, especially Karen Nussbaum and Ellen Cassedy, as a way to discuss work-related issues that gathered women from different fields to center on improving their workplace environment.
[7][8] In 1995 Schneider was named president of District 925 of the Service Employees International Union,[9] and was later elected to SEIU's executive board.
[26] Schneider has also spoken against changes proposed in the Ohio legislature that would make is harder for clerical workers, who are primarily women, to prove their injuries were related to their occupation.