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Frances C. Galt explores the role of trade unions and women’s activism in the British film and television industries in this important contribution to debates around gender inequality.
The book traces the influence of the union for technicians and other behind-the-camera workers and examines the relationship between gender and class in the labour movement. Drawing on previously unseen archival material and oral history interviews with activists, it casts new light on women’s experiences of union participation and feminism over nine decades. As concerns about the gender pay gap, women’s rights and harassment continue, it assesses historical progress and points the way to further change in film and TV.
“The issues addressed in this well-researched and beautifully written book are important and topical: gender inequality in film and tv and how to fight it. The history traced here is both sobering and inspiring.” Penny Summerfield, University of Manchester
“A clear call for renewed attention on unions and women union activists’ role in the contemporary fight for gender equality, this book is vital, not only for historians, but for all of us who fight for change now.” Shelley Cobb, University of Southampton
“Exhaustively researched and persuasively argued, Galt’s study offers important new perspectives on patterns of gender discrimination both in the film and television industries and in the organised labour movement.” Sean P. Holmes, Brunel University London
"Makes a major contribution to the historiography of women in the British screen industries, women and trade unionism, and feminist activism, through a unique longitudinal study of the relationship between women and one British craft trade union... This illuminating book will be a vital resource not only for scholars of women’s production histories but also for researchers of women’s work more broadly." Journal of British Cinema and Television
Introduction
Women and the ACT, 1933-59
Catalysts for Change, 1960-75
Regrettably 'Up-to-Date' 1975-81
Remarkable political gains? The 1980s
Women and BECTU, 1991-2017
Conclusion