Would the sector benefit from more female leaders?
Men are still taking top jobs in the arts but it is sentimental to suggest females leader would lead to a detectable improvement.
This is the difference that a woman at the top of an arts organisation can make. About 10 years ago Amanda Vickery, the expert in 18th-century history, was coolly informed that she was too old (and perhaps not tall enough) to present programmes about the past on television. Then Janice Hadlow – who is among other things, a woman – took over BBC2. She has a passionate interest in history. She looked at Vickery and saw that she was good. She also admired the classicist Mary Beard. And the cook Mary Berry. She put them on the telly. She gave viewers terrific programmes, and beamed to us faces that had before been weirdly deemed inappropriate. She wrought a change, both visual and vocal. Most people, apart from AA Gill, have rejoiced ever since.
Of course, it would be better if there were more women running large arts organisations. The argument is plain and based on natural justice. The current arrangement is daftly skewed. There is, though, another, sentimental argument that should be resisted. According to this, any influx of women would bring an automatic improvement just because they are women.
This is the difference that a woman at the top of an arts organisation can make. About 10 years ago Amanda Vickery, the expert in 18th-century history, was coolly informed that she was too old (and perhaps not tall enough) to present programmes about the past on television. Then Janice Hadlow – who is among other things, a woman – took over BBC2. She has a passionate interest in history. She looked at Vickery and saw that she was good. She also admired the classicist Mary Beard. And the cook Mary Berry. She put them on the telly. She gave viewers terrific programmes, and beamed to us faces that had before been weirdly deemed inappropriate. She wrought a change, both visual and vocal. Most people, apart from AA Gill, have rejoiced ever since.
Of course, it would be better if there were more women running large arts organisations. The argument is plain and based on natural justice. The current arrangement is daftly skewed. There is, though, another, sentimental argument that should be resisted. According to this, any influx of women would bring an automatic improvement just because they are women.