Talking About Gender @ the Small Museum Association Meeting

Museum women still fail to negotiate and they consistently underestimate their abilities. We know that failing to possess all the qualifications for a particular job does not stop men from applying, but it does stop women. Moreover, we know that in the world of work 57-percent of men negotiate for their first salary versus 5-percent of women. Men attribute their success to themselves; women attribute their success to others or a lucky break.
Even without a transparent salary scale or salary bands, it's an open secret that many museum salaries border on the unlivable. This is why it's important to believe in your own worth, to use the Living Wage calculator, and to negotiate from the beginning.
Women still shoulder the bulk of housework and childcare. This complicates their work life so that it becomes a ridiculous and ongoing internal struggle about how to negotiate parenthood and career. This complicated struggle causes women to delay career advancement in order to get past the early childhood years.
We aren't always each other's biggest supporters, as women or as humans. Most women in our audience recognized the importance of both mentoring and a personal posse or kitchen cabinet. (Those are friends and colleagues who listen to you, but are clear-eyed enough to tell you when you're wrong or you're behaving like a jerk.) But few could point to bosses or boards who acknowledge gender issues--not to mention gender complicated by race and gender identity--as a career impediment. If you are a museum leader or worker is gender equity your problem? You bet it is. Your colleagues, your team, your department and your organization are your problem. You don't get to wring your hands and moan about the lack of diversity in the museum workforce when you're not actively working to raise salaries so museum workers don't need well-off partners or parents to make ends meet. You don't get to pontificate about how important it is for museums to engage with their communities if you fail to acknowledge the very real and complex issues of 46.7-percent of your workforce. And you don't get to whine about millennials and their attitudes toward work if you aren't actively mentoring, guiding and advising the next generation. Stellar organizations are value driven organizations. They put the most diverse group at the table they can, and treat staff as equitably as possible. Museum workers who are treated equitably are happy, and happy humans are creative humans. What organization doesn't want that? Joan Baldwin