Broadcasting in the 1990s: competition, choice and inequality?

Abstract

Restructuring of the UK television industry has resulted in a shift from secure, long-term employment to casualized, project-based working, with the period prior to restructuring typically described as one of structured careers and stable employement. The article draws on documentary evidence to suggest that, for women, it was a period of widespread discrimination and gendered occupational segregation. While legislation and equal opportunity initiatives from the mid-1970s onwards made some progress in remedying the situation, fragmentation and informal working practices were welcomed by many women as an opportunity to gain control over the organization of their working lives. Yet project-based employment has allowed individual producers discretion in the organization of work, and placed the industry at odds with theories of equal opportunities that emphasize the need for centralized policies and administration. The article concludes by drawing on a series of interviews to suggest that many issues addressed by earlier equal opportunity initiatives have re-emerged in the context of short-term contracting.