News – Tackling the glass ceiling

Forty scholarships, funded by the European Social Fund, are being made available to enable women to join a new management programme designed to help them move into leadership roles in the cultural sector. The Cultural Leadership Programme, being launched by City University in July, is one of the first accredited courses of its kind anywhere in the world and is unique in addressing specifically the lack of female leadership in the sector.
Announcing the new programme, Sue Robertson, Dean of the School of Arts at City, said, Research has shown that at the lower levels of the cultural sector the workforce is up to 80% female. Only about 20% of its leaders are women. In some parts of the sector the percentage is even lower. At the same time as the sector cries out for more good leaders, many talented women are being overlooked for the top jobs. Our programme aims to address this. In the future, the programme may be opened to men too. The programme will operate at post-graduate certificate and diploma levels, with students gaining a diploma having the option to take an MA based on a further year of research-based study. Further details will be available in March.