Taking the Museum Gender Equity Pulse in Texas

American Association of University Women (AAUW) is dramatically worse for Native and Latina women than for black women, and certainly for Asian or white women--has been the after-thought problem in the museum world for 45 years. And this in a year when data shows us that nationally 81-percent of women and 43-percent of men experience sexual harassment in their lifetimes. Some might say that the museum world, with its 46.7-percent female workforce, should sit up and pay attention. That's how TAM felt, and that's how we found ourselves speaking to a lunch-time audience in the Hyatt Regency. Before we went, we launched a survey on Facebook to confirm (or bust) what we believed about gender equity in museums versus working in other job sectors in the United States. As of Sunday 625 humans had taken part. The survey is still open if you'd like to participate. What did we learn? That 62-percent of those folks say they've been discriminated against because of their gender. And more alarmingly, that 49-percent have experienced verbal and/or sexual harassment at work. What does this say about the museum field? Haven't you all had enough? Texas is taking care of its own, but isn't it time for more museum service agencies to follow the TAM model and stand up and say gender inequity is a bad thing? Gender inequity is insidious. For women of color, it means a workplace that mixes racial bias with gender bias in ways that multiply the occasions for hurt, harassment and EEOC complaints. We'll leave you with the same quote that ended our TAM speech. It's from a participant in our recent survey who wrote,

"I feel like a second-class citizen." No one working in the museum world should feel like that. We have the power to make change. Let's do it. Joan Baldwin & Anne Ackerson