On one wall of my (museum studies) graduate school they have pictures of
every graduating class from 1965 to the present day. The Class of 1965
(approximately thirty people) is almost entirely male - I believe there were
two, maybe three women. The trend continued for a while. Then, somewhere
along the wall it gradually switched, and today is the exact opposite. I do
not believe this is caused by gender discrimination (well, perhaps in 1965,
but not now). Somehow, somewhere, perceptions about the field have changed.
Despite efforts, there are fewer male applicants then female. As I mentioned
before, I was one of two men in my graduating class out of three
interviewees and perhaps six to twelve applicants (out of about 50).

I am fortunate never to have experienced any (direct) gender discrimination,
however, sometimes ugly things do rear their head. I once overheard a
conversation between a male and female student, gently ribbing each other
about something. She tells him, "Oh, you're just a quota." Ouch.

GWG


National Speedskating Museum and Hall of Fame
George Garner, Director and Curator
P.O. Box 3120, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
(518) 587-2609


|-----Original Message-----
|From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
|Behalf Of Timothy McShane
|Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 11:28 AM
|To: [log in to unmask]
|Subject: Re: Question regarding "E.O.E."
|
|
|There was a study done of the Museum Labour Force in Canada in
|1989 (may
|be a bit out-of-date, but it's all I have at hand)--it found a
|near even
|split of male to female workers at 50.3 and 49.7 percent respectively.
|The study also found that women "tended to be concentrated in smaller
|institutions and lower paid jobs."
|
|This finding surprised me, as since 1994, it has been my perception
|that there are considerably more women in museum work (maybe
|that's just
|a reflection of the museum types I'm most familiar with).  I
|have heard,
|anecdotally, that this is due to the traditional low wages paid to
|(usually) highly educated people in the museum realm--men, because of
|their gender, had an easier time applying their skills and education to
|higher-paying jobs in the corporate world, leaving the lower-paying
|cultural jobs to be filled by women (in a perfect world, this would all
|be past history, but I suspect a gender bias still lingers...).
|
|With regards to women in the top museum jobs, of the three institutions
|I've worked for, I'm now at the only one that has had a man in the
|Director/Curator position; and the person he reports to in the
|City is a
|woman!
|
|Cheers,
|
|
|------------------------------------------------------------
|Tim McShane, Assistant--Cultural History
|Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery
|1302 Bomford Crescent S.W.
|Medicine Hat, AB   T1A 5E6
|(403) 502-8587
|
|>>> [log in to unmask] 11/20/02 08:43AM >>>
|Hello Museum-Lers,
|
|As a "White (non-Hispanic) Male" - sometimes "Caucasian" - I perceive
|that I am in the minority when it comes to museum employment.  In
|reviewing the staff web pages on several museum web sites, I see the
|ratio of women to men goes from equal - 1 to 1 - to very unequal - 4
|to
|1, in one case 6 to 1.  (I can't tell about other E.O.E.
|classifications.)
|
|So, my questions:
|
|        Is this a false perception?
|        Am I missing something in the bigger picture?
|        Are men a minority in museum work?
|        If men are in a minority, what do you believe contributes to
|this?
|
|Truly, I'm not looking to initiate a new round in the "blame game";
|I'm
|just trying to figure out how to find a job where I can use the
|education and experience I have so far managed to acquire.
|
|Sincerely,
|Jay Heuman
|
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