New York Times: Gender Gap Persists at Largest Museums

By Hilarie M. Sheets

22 March 2017

When Thomas P. Campbell steps down as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on June 30, the top job at the biggest art museum in the United States will be up for grabs. A woman faces long odds of landing that job, to judge from a study just released from the Association of Art Museum Directors.

“The Ongoing Gender Gap in Art Museum Directorships” shows that just one of the nation’s 13 largest museums is run by a woman. The report is a follow-up to a 2014 study, the first to analyze salary data collected from the association’s 200-plus membership from the vantage point of gender.

Women today are nearing equity over all, leading 48 percent of art museums, up from 43 percent three years ago. A gender gap persists, however, at the largest museums — those with budgets of $15 million and higher, where just 30 percent have female directors. And as the budgets grow, the ranks of women thin, with just three women heading the 20 largest-budget institutions in the association.

“The first step in addressing inequality is acknowledging it,” said Lisa Phillips, director of the New Museum in New York, who initiated the 2014 study and consulted on the new report. “Hard data makes it plain and clear.”

Read the full article in The New York Times.