Here's my take:

Early on in museum history, when museum work was primarily a scholarly
pursuit, the men were the only ones who had the education level sufficient
to make a career of working in them.  When additional functions were needed
but with a lower level of education, it was the women who were willing to
accept the very low salaries associated with them because they were not the
primary breadwinner in the family--the income was supplementary.  Now that
the non-curatorial aspects of museum work outnumber the curatorial
positions, the salaries have remained low and are still filled primarily by
women; the higher-paid curatorial and administrative positions (for which
men and women are now equally educationally capable of handling) seem to
follow the pattern Jane notes below.

For the record, I have worked for an equal number of male vs. female
supervisors.

Julia Muney Moore
Director of Exhibitions and Artist Services
Indianapolis Art Center
820 E. 67th St.
Indianapolis, IN  46220
(317) 255-2464 x233
FAX (317) 254-0486
email <[log in to unmask]>
website <http://www.indplsartcenter.org>


-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Bedno [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 11:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Question regarding "E.O.E."

I have
consistently found that, when two graduates have equally strong credentials,
the male applicant will be offered the job first, the female only after the
man has turned it down, and (where I am aware of the details) the male
applicant has often been offered the job initially at a higher salary than
is then offered to the female applicant.

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