The Women Leaders in Museums Network has met Maria Miller, the secretary for culture, media and sport and the minister for women and equalities, to discuss the gender imbalance in the museum sector.
The roundtable discussion took place last month, and members of the network have been asked to present a formal proposal to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport about possible ways in which the sector and the government could address the issue.
Sex and Power 2013: Who Runs Britain?, a recent report commissioned by the Counting Women In coalition, found that despite women making up 51% of the population, they are still hugely under-represented in leadership roles.
The report found that 28% of national and regional museum and gallery directors were female in 2012, compared with 26.1% in 2011 and 21.1% when records began in 2003.
Elsewhere, 27.4% of museum trustees and board members are female, while just 9.5% of chair positions are held by women.
The figures are based on a sample of 50 museums. Sally Macdonald, co-chairwoman of the Women Leaders in Museums Network and director of museums and collections at University College London, said the picture could be worse if wider data on women leaders in the sector was collected.
“It appears that the more high profile the job is, the less likely you are to find a women in it,” she added.
“But it’s important to realise that we don’t have to accept this situation and that progress is possible.”
Miller recently called for better diversity and representation of women at all levels of the workforce, adding that this could only be achieved through a cultural shift, rather than via imposed European quotas and “tokenism”.
“We have made good progress, but there is still much more work to do – and there is no room for complacency,” she said.
“We simply cannot afford to waste the skills and talents of half of our population.”
The roundtable discussion took place last month, and members of the network have been asked to present a formal proposal to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport about possible ways in which the sector and the government could address the issue.
Sex and Power 2013: Who Runs Britain?, a recent report commissioned by the Counting Women In coalition, found that despite women making up 51% of the population, they are still hugely under-represented in leadership roles.
The report found that 28% of national and regional museum and gallery directors were female in 2012, compared with 26.1% in 2011 and 21.1% when records began in 2003.
Elsewhere, 27.4% of museum trustees and board members are female, while just 9.5% of chair positions are held by women.
The figures are based on a sample of 50 museums. Sally Macdonald, co-chairwoman of the Women Leaders in Museums Network and director of museums and collections at University College London, said the picture could be worse if wider data on women leaders in the sector was collected.
“It appears that the more high profile the job is, the less likely you are to find a women in it,” she added.
“But it’s important to realise that we don’t have to accept this situation and that progress is possible.”
Miller recently called for better diversity and representation of women at all levels of the workforce, adding that this could only be achieved through a cultural shift, rather than via imposed European quotas and “tokenism”.
“We have made good progress, but there is still much more work to do – and there is no room for complacency,” she said.
“We simply cannot afford to waste the skills and talents of half of our population.”
