In 1994, I interviewed 10 men and women working in museums for an article on the glass ceiling - people talked then about the lack of leadership development, women's self-limiting behaviours and the power of the old boys network. What has changed since then?
Research by City University and thinktank Demos published in April suggests that a glass ceiling still exists: only 19 per cent of museums surveyed had a female board chair.
Although a significant number of local authority services have women directors, the independent sector is still dominated by men, and the number of female CEOs in national museums will double when Diane Lees joins the Imperial War Museum in November.
Women are under-represented at director level in a workforce estimated to be 80 per cent female. Meanwhile, Margaret Hodge is turning up the heat at the department for culture with discussions about all-female shortlists as a way of creating a long overdue gender shift at board level.
In 2004, Virginia Tandy, director of Manchester City Galleries, and Diane Lees, director of the Museum of Childhood, set up the Women Leaders in Museums Network (WLMN) - a place for women directors to meet, learn and develop together.
In 2007 the network received a grant from the Cultural Leadership Programme, and Cathy Herman, Gaby Porter and I were appointed to design and deliver a development programme.
We developed five intensive workshops for the 24 women directors who had signed up to the network. These included lectures from high-profile businesswomen and academics including Liz Forgan, and Susan Vinnicombe of Cranfield Business School.
We invited one man, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the Royal Society of the Arts, who spoke powerfully about new models of networking to bring about progressive change - he seemed only slightly phased to find himself the sole man in a room full of women.
We set out to tackle the big issues that concern women in senior roles such as equality, insularity, self-belief, image, aspiration and the challenge of balancing work, family and life. Listening to and working with board members at one of the workshops has encouraged some network members to join boards outside the sector.
Representatives from women's networks in other areas, including banking, advertising, the prison service and health, came to a WLMN event. People talked about a staggering information exchange.
Time to think and reflect together was a significant part of the programme. At the first residential, Nancy Kline, founder and president of Time to Think - an international leadership and development company - introduced meeting and listening principles that members transferred to their daily lives and work.
People discussed the growing clarity and confidence that being part of the network provided. Others described a validation of their own leadership styles, which were not about replicating "male" leadership behaviours. And members welcomed the chance to work with senior colleagues who were genuine role models.
So is there a role for a women's leadership network? The overwhelming response at the final workshop was yes. One participant summed it up well when she said that it allowed for an honest and inclusive debate and greater confidence and trust to address gender-specific leadership issues.
We believe this is a transferable model. We learned that discussing and agreeing a larger shared purpose and values beyond the immediate personal goals of individuals was something that we needed to return to several times.
Finding space to develop the network is hard for busy people in senior roles; external facilitation and administrative support is essential and good meetings take time and rigour to conceptualise, structure and facilitate.
Another lesson was the value of investing time in the development of the network itself by working together and building a sense of common endeavour - the level of trust that was generated through five intensive sessions over six months was palpable.
We agreed early on to be realistic about what people can give and what they will get - our advice is start small and then grow. So at one point we discussed whether the group would make "a pledge to contribute to social justice" - a laudable aim, but perhaps beyond the capacity of the network as it currently exists.
Finally, creating an open and trusting environment that supports discussion, learning and self-reflection around common agendas was helped by hearing very senior women talk honestly about their experience, which then allowed others to do the same.
Although more women are getting top jobs, there will still be a need for a women's network in museums - and networking is something that women do very well.
Anne Murch is a consultant in people and organisational development working in the cultural sector.
For more information on WLMN, contact Vanessa Trevelyan at Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service
Research by City University and thinktank Demos published in April suggests that a glass ceiling still exists: only 19 per cent of museums surveyed had a female board chair.
Although a significant number of local authority services have women directors, the independent sector is still dominated by men, and the number of female CEOs in national museums will double when Diane Lees joins the Imperial War Museum in November.
Women are under-represented at director level in a workforce estimated to be 80 per cent female. Meanwhile, Margaret Hodge is turning up the heat at the department for culture with discussions about all-female shortlists as a way of creating a long overdue gender shift at board level.
In 2004, Virginia Tandy, director of Manchester City Galleries, and Diane Lees, director of the Museum of Childhood, set up the Women Leaders in Museums Network (WLMN) - a place for women directors to meet, learn and develop together.
In 2007 the network received a grant from the Cultural Leadership Programme, and Cathy Herman, Gaby Porter and I were appointed to design and deliver a development programme.
We developed five intensive workshops for the 24 women directors who had signed up to the network. These included lectures from high-profile businesswomen and academics including Liz Forgan, and Susan Vinnicombe of Cranfield Business School.
We invited one man, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the Royal Society of the Arts, who spoke powerfully about new models of networking to bring about progressive change - he seemed only slightly phased to find himself the sole man in a room full of women.
We set out to tackle the big issues that concern women in senior roles such as equality, insularity, self-belief, image, aspiration and the challenge of balancing work, family and life. Listening to and working with board members at one of the workshops has encouraged some network members to join boards outside the sector.
Representatives from women's networks in other areas, including banking, advertising, the prison service and health, came to a WLMN event. People talked about a staggering information exchange.
Time to think and reflect together was a significant part of the programme. At the first residential, Nancy Kline, founder and president of Time to Think - an international leadership and development company - introduced meeting and listening principles that members transferred to their daily lives and work.
People discussed the growing clarity and confidence that being part of the network provided. Others described a validation of their own leadership styles, which were not about replicating "male" leadership behaviours. And members welcomed the chance to work with senior colleagues who were genuine role models.
So is there a role for a women's leadership network? The overwhelming response at the final workshop was yes. One participant summed it up well when she said that it allowed for an honest and inclusive debate and greater confidence and trust to address gender-specific leadership issues.
We believe this is a transferable model. We learned that discussing and agreeing a larger shared purpose and values beyond the immediate personal goals of individuals was something that we needed to return to several times.
Finding space to develop the network is hard for busy people in senior roles; external facilitation and administrative support is essential and good meetings take time and rigour to conceptualise, structure and facilitate.
Another lesson was the value of investing time in the development of the network itself by working together and building a sense of common endeavour - the level of trust that was generated through five intensive sessions over six months was palpable.
We agreed early on to be realistic about what people can give and what they will get - our advice is start small and then grow. So at one point we discussed whether the group would make "a pledge to contribute to social justice" - a laudable aim, but perhaps beyond the capacity of the network as it currently exists.
Finally, creating an open and trusting environment that supports discussion, learning and self-reflection around common agendas was helped by hearing very senior women talk honestly about their experience, which then allowed others to do the same.
Although more women are getting top jobs, there will still be a need for a women's network in museums - and networking is something that women do very well.
Anne Murch is a consultant in people and organisational development working in the cultural sector.
For more information on WLMN, contact Vanessa Trevelyan at Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service
