Women and the ACT, 1933– 59

This chapter examines the relationship between women and the Association of Cine-Technicians (ACT) in the first three decades of the union’s history, between 1933 and 1959, to argue that a profoundly gendered union structure was institutionalised during the ACT’s establishment and formative years. Firstly, this chapter examines the process of unionisation within the British film industry to demonstrate that men’s interests were prioritised and women’s interests were excluded by this process. Secondly, this chapter reflects upon the consolidation of the ACT’s power in the film industry and its gendered union structure during the Second World War. It argues that the ACT introduced agreements and adopted organisational practices which safeguarded men’s jobs in response to the influx of women workers into the film industry during the war. Thirdly, it examines debates around which technicians should be represented among ACT’s membership in the post-war period, including the union’s response to the growth of the commercial television industry in the 1950s. This chapter also surveys women’s activity in the ACT between 1933 and 1959 to consider the evidence for a feminist consciousness among women activists in the decades between Britain’s first and second-wave feminist movements.