In this fascinating book, Frances Galt uses a longitudinal case study of an individual union to scrutinize the multiple ways by which male-dominated craft unions have consistently marginalized women and under-represented their interests, while sometimes being praised for their progressive position on gender equality. To that end, she provides a rich analysis of the relationship between women and the entertainment union ACT(T)/BECTU representing workers in the British film and television industries, through periods of both militancy and inertia.

The first chapter looks into the union's formative years (1933–1959). Galt describes how the Association of Cinematograph Technicians (ACT) chose to prioritize the unionization of the male-dominated sections of the industry (film technicians), in a context of worsening working conditions and increased precariousness. Since its creation and for a long time, the ACT used gendered notions of skill and job to demarcate which grades should be represented by the union, justifying the exclusion of many women. When the union granted women equal pay in the 1930s, only a minority were covered by equal pay agreements because sex segregation confined women to grades in which few men were employed. Moreover, this early commitment justified an evident inertia in the 1940s and 1950s while maintaining gender segregation through the grading structure. During the war, the ACT negotiated agreements that specified that women performing men's work would be employed on a temporary basis, initially receiving women's rates before progressing to full male rates, hence safeguarding the jobs of the conscripted male technicians. The prioritization of men's interests and jobs was even reinforced in the post-war period in response to the influx of women workers who were finally able to join in 1935 when the ACT extended membership to laboratory technicians.

The second part looks into the next period (1956–1991) after the ACT extended its coverage to represent technicians working on ITV and incorporated ‘Television’ into its name (ACTT). This chapter identifies the catalysts for the establishment of the Committee on Equality (COE) in 1973 and the demand for an investigation into gender discrimination in the film and television industries, which culminated in the publication of the Patterns report in 1975. This independent report, led by a young feminist, highlighted widespread gender inequality and pointed to two main issues related to maternity leave and the lack of training opportunities. As Galt emphasizes, this turning point in the relationship between women and the ACTT was the result of a combination of factors: the impact of the women’ liberation movement, the role of the London Women's Film Group and the enactment of the Equal Pay Act in 1970.

Increased numbers of women joined the ACTT mostly from commercial television, but their share of membership remained stable (20 per cent). Besides, they continued to be systematically excluded from most traineeships and discouraged to apply for jobs in ‘men's’ departments. These persisting forms of discrimination led to an increase in women's activism in the union from 1973 and the appointment of women officials. However, through the analysis of the COE activity and the debates around self-separate organization, Galt shows how male leaders have strived to deny women a critical space to discuss and organize in the name of the struggle against ‘oppression as a totality’ (p. 86). She also points to the experience of class division on the COE between the committee members who were mostly middle-class women (often without children) coming from commercial television and the rare members working in the laboratories.

Chapter 3 returns to the content of the Patterns report which highlighted problems, such as the concentration of women in a small number of jobs (mainly production secretary, continuity supervisors and ITV production assistants) and the fact that only 25 per cent of women were covered by the ACTT's equal pay agreement. The report also exposed other forms of discrimination, such as the lack of training facilities and the permanence of a job structure, which inhibited women's career progression. Many demands were made at the time, including 26 weeks of paid maternity leave and quotas on training courses. However, there was slow progress between 1975 and 1981. Most ACTT's rank-and-file activists (85 per cent were men at the time) did not read the report and/or discuss its recommendations at branch level. Male union officials were reluctant to negotiate around women's demands for fear of disrupting their productive relationship with management, notably when it comes to pay increases. Besides, the COE struggled to have a substantial influence due to its detachment from the ACTT formal union structure, and its focus on single-issue campaigns (childcare provisions and abortion rights). This inertia clearly fuelled a growing frustration among women members, leading to the first women's conference in 1981, and the appointment of a full-time equality officer.

Chapter 4 looks into the equality structures implemented in the 1980s, notably the development of women's separate self-organization with specific committees for women, BAME, Disabled and LGBTI. It emphasizes the effectiveness of the network of local equality representatives that facilitated the formulation of policy and advanced women's demands at all levels of the union's structures. However, Galt points to the weak impact of these requests on women's employment conditions. If they made remarkable gains inside the union in the 1980s, the situation of women workers in the labour market did not progress during the Thatcher period. The effects of anti-union legislation and the deregulation of both industries led to the weakening of both ACTT's bargaining power and campaigns for gender equality. The removal of state financing, the expansion of the independent production sector and the casualization of work, all encouraged the ACTT to prioritize traditional union demands, such as wages and working conditions. Women's demands increasingly became seen as a ‘campaigning luxury’ by rank-and-file activists and (male) members, recalling that the specific needs of women are often eclipsed in times of economic crisis.

Chapter 5 explores the more recent period (1991–2017) following the creation of Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph & Theatre Union (BECTU), which resulted from the merger in 1988 of ACTT and the Broadcasting & Entertainment Trades Alliance (BETA) that had no equality structures in place; an amalgamation process that eventually led to the deterioration of women's structural gains. In the 1990s, the union entered a period of financial crisis due to the high level of casualization in the industries and the loss of members. This crisis led to the abandonment of the annual women's conference (reintroduced in the 2003) and the merger of the four equality committees into a General Equality Committee. The amalgamation process disproportionately impacted women officers in BECTU with many of them leaving their union jobs, notably those performing admin roles or jobs traditionally associated with ‘women's work’. Some women officials also left, and the equality officer role ceased to exist in 1999, after failing to coordinate wider gender equality campaigns. Equality work was then allocated to various female national officials who also had other duties. Annual women's conferences were reintroduced in 2003 as part of a recruitment strategy and to encourage women's participation but became rather routinized. Separate forms of organization helped the election of the first female President in 2010, at a time when the number of women in the industry and therefore in the union was declining due to austerity policies. On a more positive note, Galt notes that, during this period, the representation of BAME members improved as a result of the existence of separate forms of organization enshrined in the union's statutes.

This book provides a superb analysis of the ACT(T)/BECTU ‘inequality regime’ and its permanence over time, despite the introduction of progressive equality policies and periods of intense women's activism. The combination of rich archival records and oral history interviews provides a detailed examination of the constraints and levers for the participation of women in this male-dominated craft union, and of the ways by which the union has shaped women's experiences of work. It reveals how the union has strived to exclude women through a gendered definition of jobs and skills. When forced to represent feminized jobs, it has consistently subordinate women's interests to the defence of male occupations, particularly in contexts of economic recession and job insecurity. This study also points to the fragility of equality structures when they are not enshrined in trade union statutes and when they fail to support the members they seek to represent because of the way they operate or the characteristics of those elected to them. However, like other research, this book highlights the critical role of separate forms of organizations to advance (gender) equality within the union structure and in the workplace.

在这本引人入胜的书中，弗朗西斯·高尔特 (Frances Galt) 使用对单个工会的纵向案例研究来仔细审查男性主导的工会始终将女性边缘化并代表她们的利益的多种方式，同时有时因其在性别平等方面的进步立场而受到赞扬. 为此，她对女性与代表英国电影和电视行业工人的娱乐工会 ACT(T)/BECTU 之间的关系进行了丰富的分析，这些关系经历了好战和惰性时期。

第一章探讨了工会的形成时期（1933-1959）。Galt 描述了电影技术员协会 (ACT) 如何在工作条件恶化和不稳定的情况下选择优先考虑行业中男性主导的部分（电影技术员）的工会。自成立以来并在很长一段时间内，ACT 使用技能和工作的性别概念来划分工会应代表哪些等级，证明排除许多女性是合理的。当工会在 1930 年代授予女性同酬时，只有少数人受到同酬协议的保护，因为性别隔离将女性限制在几乎没有男性就业的等级。此外，这一早期承诺证明了 1940 年代和 1950 年代明显的惰性，同时通过等级结构保持性别隔离。战争期间，ACT 谈判达成协议，规定将临时雇用从事男性工作的女性，最初接受女性工资，然后发展为全额男性工资，从而保护应征男性技术人员的工作。1935 年，当 ACT 将成员资格扩大到实验室技术人员时，为了应对最终能够加入的女工的涌入，战后时期甚至加强了对男性利益和工作的优先考虑。

第二部分着眼于 ACT 扩大其覆盖范围以代表从事 ITV 工作的技术人员并将“电视”纳入其名称 (ACTT) 之后的下一个时期（1956-1991 年）。本章确定了 1973 年成立平等委员会 (COE) 的催化剂以及对电影和电视行业中性别歧视进行调查的需求，最终导致了《模式》的出版1975 年的报告。这份由年轻女权主义者领导的独立报告强调了普遍存在的性别不平等，并指出了与产假和缺乏培训机会有关的两个主要问题。正如高尔特所强调的，女性与 ACTT 关系的这一转折点是多种因素共同作用的结果：女性解放运动的影响、伦敦女性电影集团的作用以及《同工同酬法案》的颁布。 1970 年。

越来越多的女性加入 ACTT，主要来自商业电视，但她们的成员比例保持稳定（20%）。此外，他们继续被系统地排除在大多数实习岗位之外，并且不鼓励他们申请“男性”部门的工作。这些持续存在的歧视形式导致自 1973 年以来工会中的妇女激进主义增加，并任命了女性官员。然而，通过对 COE 活动的分析和围绕自我分离组织的辩论，Galt 展示了男性领导人如何以反对“作为一个整体的压迫”的斗争的名义努力剥夺女性讨论和组织的关键空间（p . 86）。

第 3 章返回模式的内容报告强调了一些问题，例如妇女集中在少数工作岗位（主要是生产秘书、连续性主管和 ITV 生产助理），以及只有 25% 的妇女被 ACTT 的同工同酬协议覆盖。该报告还揭露了其他形式的歧视，例如培训设施的缺乏和工作结构的长期性，这些都阻碍了妇女的职业发展。当时提出了许多要求，包括 26 周带薪产假和培训课程配额。然而，1975 年至 1981 年间进展缓慢。ACTT 的大多数普通活动家（当时 85% 是男性）没有阅读报告和/或在分支机构级别讨论其建议。男性工会官员不愿就女性问题进行谈判 担心破坏他们与管理层的生产关系的要求，特别是在加薪方面。此外，由于脱离了 ACTT 正式工会结构，并且专注于单一问题的运动（儿童保育条款和堕胎权），COE 难以产生实质性影响。这种惰性显然助长了女性成员越来越沮丧，导致 1981 年召开了第一次妇女大会，并任命了一名全职平等官员。

第 4 章探讨了 1980 年代实施的平等结构，特别是妇女独立自组织的发展，并设有专门的妇女、BAME、残疾人和 LGBTI 委员会。它强调了地方平等代表网络的有效性，该网络促进了工会结构各级政策的制定和提高了妇女的要求。然而，Galt 指出这些要求对女性就业条件的影响微弱。如果说她们在 1980 年代在工会内部取得了显著成绩，那么在撒切尔时代，劳动力市场中女工的状况并没有得到改善。反工会立法的影响和两个行业的放松管制导致 ACTT 的议价能力和性别平等运动的削弱。取消国家资助，独立生产部门的扩张和临时工，都鼓励 ACTT 优先考虑传统的工会要求，例如工资和工作条件。女性的需求越来越多地被基层活动家和（男性）成员视为“竞选奢侈品”，她们回忆说，在经济危机时期，女性的特殊需求往往会黯然失色。

第 5 章探讨了广播娱乐电影与戏剧联盟 (BECTU) 成立后的最近时期（1991-2017 年），该联盟是 1988 年 ACTT 和没有平等结构的广播与娱乐行业联盟 (BETA) 合并的结果到位; 最终导致女性结构性收益恶化的合并过程。1990年代，工会因行业散工率高、会员流失而进入金融危机时期。这场危机导致年度妇女大会（2003 年重新引入）被取消，四个平等委员会合并为一个普遍平等委员会。合并过程对 BECTU 的女性官员产生了不成比例的影响，其中许多人离开了工会工作，特别是那些执行传统上与“女性工作”相关的管理角色或工作的人。一些女官员也离开了，由于未能协调更广泛的性别平等运动，平等官员的角色于 1999 年不复存在。平等工作随后被分配给也有其他职责的各种女性国家官员。2003 年重新引入了年度妇女会议，作为招聘战略的一部分并鼓励妇女参与，但变得相当常规化。2010 年，由于紧缩政策，该行业以及工会中的女性人数正在下降，不同的组织形式帮助选举了第一位女性总统。更积极的一点是，高尔特指出，在此期间，

本书对 ACT(T)/BECTU 的“不平等制度”及其随着时间的推移的持久性进行了出色的分析，尽管引入了渐进式平等政策和女性激进主义的时期。丰富的档案记录和口述历史访谈相结合，详细考察了女性参与这个男性主导的工会的限制和杠杆，以及工会塑造女性工作经验的方式。它揭示了工会如何通过对工作和技能的性别定义来努力排除女性。当被迫代表女性化的工作时，它始终将女性的利益置于男性职业的保护之下，尤其是在经济衰退和工作不安全的情况下。本研究还指出了当他们在工会法规中载入的平等结构的脆弱性，并且当他们未能支持他们寻求代表的成员时，因为他们的运作或所选人的特征。然而，与其他研究一样，本书强调了不同形式的组织在促进工会结构和工作场所（性别）平等方面的关键作用。