Remarkable Political Gains? The 1980s

Abstract

This chapter analyses the methods of formalisation introduced by the ACTT during the 1980s: the appointment of a full-time Equality Officer in the ACTT’s Head Office; the establishment of a network of local Equality Representatives; the introduction of an annual women’s conference; and the increased visibility of women’s activity in union publications. This chapter establishes a narrative of continuity and change in the relationship between women and the ACTT in its exploration of structural gains achieved within the union and stasis in the pattern of women’s employment in the film and television industries. Firstly, this chapter contextualises the formalisation of women’s representation in the ACTT in relation to Margaret Thatcher’s anti-union legislation and the deregulation of the film and television industries. Secondly, this chapter considers each method of formalisation to argue that these new structures established a network of women activists which coordinated women’s activity, facilitated the formulation of policy, and advanced women’s demands at all levels of the union’s structure. Thirdly, this chapter argues that women’s demands continued to encounter hostility and apathy from the ACTT’s male officials and rank-and-file membership, which inhibited the translation of women’s political gains in the union into material gains in the workforce.