“Regrettably up-to-date”: The Patterns of Discrimination against Women in the Film and Television Industries Report (1975) in Historical Context

Patterns of Discrimination against Women in the Film and Television Industries, a report issued in 1975 by the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians (ACTT), was a seminal document on gender discrimination in the workplace. Upon its publication, it was heralded as “by far the most comprehensive and informed to have been produced within the trade union movement so far” by feminist film scholar and activist Claire Johnston. However, by the time of the ACTT's first Women's Conference six years later, in 1981, Gillian Skirrow described the report as “regrettably up-to-date,” indicating that little had changed. This article examines the relationship between women and the ACTT between 1968 and 1981 to situate the report in historical context.