On Thursday, July 2, 2020 at 2:00 PM EST we will speak with Anne Ackerson and Joan Baldwin on gender equity in museums and workplaces.
A former museum director, Joan H. Baldwin is the Curator of Special Collections at The Hotchkiss School. She is the principal writer for the Leadership Matters blog which had 55,000 views in 2018. Her work has also appeared in The Museum Blog Book, “History News,” and “Museum” Magazine, Museopunks, and “The Guardian.” She is a co-founder of the Gender Equity in Museums Movement, and teaches in the Johns Hopkins University museum studies program. With Anne Ackerson, she is the co-author of Leadership Matters (2013) and Women in the Museum: Lessons from the Field (2017). She and Ackerson published a revision of Leadership Matters: Leading Museums in an Age of Discord in August 2019.
Anne W. Ackerson is a former history museum director, director of the Museum Association of New York, and director of the national Council of State Archivists. She is currently an independent consultant to cultural and educational nonprofits, specializing in leadership, governance, and management issues. With Joan H. Baldwin, she is the co-author of Leadership Matters, a book examining history museum leadership for the 21st century, and Women in the Museum: Lessons from the Workplace. She is a co-founder of the Gender Equity in Museums Movement (GEMM), which is focusing its recent efforts on education, advocacy, and policy development around pay equity, salary transparency, and sexual harassment in the museum workplace. In 2018, she and Baldwin spearheaded research, revealing that 62% of the museum workforce are affected by some form of gender discrimination. In addition to research and writing about gender inequity, she and Baldwin have presented their findings to the Texas and Pennsylvania Associations of Museums as conference keynoters and via their blog, Leadership Matters.
To RSVP to this Coffee Gathering, please fill out this form: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=JIXjW12zr0-lcPgY7h7QkSiPIn2leHZOu9uRp8OwmWRUNkkyQkVOU05aVVdSSU1XUzNNWEYyRVo2My4u
All participants who have RSVP’d will receive via email a link in advance to attend the session. Once you receive the link, you may join the conversation to test the program. Please use this same link when you are ready to join the scheduled date and time for the Coffee Gathering.
Please note the Coffee Gatherings are recorded and uploaded for future viewing.
We kindly request that you turn off your microphone during the conversation; however, you may keep your camera on if you wish.
I would love to join in! I faced gender discrimination during my tenure at a well-known institution in New York City where I had been a member of the curatorial department for eight years before I left to join the auction market for nearly five years. When I was later persuaded by the board of my former institution to return and change the fortunes of the institution around which, at that point, were in financial turmoil, I jumped at the opportunity! My tenure was horrific–I was told to lose weight, consider shaping my thick eyebrows and buy a better wardrobe. When I was terminated, I sued the institution, and needless to say my story appeared in the papers–even in the Italian press! My former staff was intimidated and could not be called as witnesses. Many colleagues advised that I should have not sued for sex discrimination as members of the board were very important people. Indeed, one board member told me and I paraphrase at this time: “We can make this unpleasant for you.” I was not the first nor the last to experience such outrageous behavior–but I hope that we can begin to change matters and speak out against this sexism and that boards know that we are turning a new page NOW and there is no turning back!
To RSVP to this Coffee Gathering, please fill out this form: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=JIXjW12zr0-lcPgY7h7QkSiPIn2leHZOu9uRp8OwmWRUNkkyQkVOU05aVVdSSU1XUzNNWEYyRVo2My4u