Gender Disparities in Leadership Position

The program ”the Women of Art” is a cooperative project between the biggest employer organizations in Culture-Norway, [a web portal designed for those seeking and offering employment in the culture sector.] The Norwegian Society of Theater and Orchestra, the Norwegian Film Association and the Norwegian Society of TV and Film Producers, among others, have started the initiative. The goal of the course is to offset the gender disparity in cultural management position in Norway. 1.5 billion NOK have been allocated to the program. The leader of the Norwegian Film Association, Cecilie Priscilla Nordseth, is the project’s coordinator.

“Our hope for the program was to teach women educated in the culture sector to be leaders in large companies or institution within their field. 7 out of 17 of participants who completed the program in 2009 have done so, and we’re very satisfied with this,” she says.

She adds that all of the participants who previous leadership experience had a good basis even before the start the leadership development program.

“Those who participated in the first round of the program have given us only positive feedback. They’ve also created an important network that they’ve kept in touch with,” explains Nordseth.

Inadequately Represented

Women are inadequately represented in leadership positions, especially in the arts. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, more and more women are obtaining leadership positions. However, less than one of 5 leadership positions are held by women. In Norway, the percentage of women in cultural leadership position is only 23 percent. Astrid Kvalbein is a musician and a fellow at the Norwegian College of Music. She believes that one the reasons women are underrepresented is that it is the exceptional performers who work their way up. Quotas do not necessarily promote the best performers.

“It’s common to hear that make your way in the arts, you have to be number one. This implies certain characteristics which are often associated with men. That can be a reason for which you find certain trends that resemble quotas,” says Kvalbein.

Kvalbein explains how men have been historically defined as skilled. All the composers known in the world of music are men, even though there have been several female geniuses.

“I can understand the value of quotas in other fields, where women can contribute with new perspectives. It’s different in the culture sector. We don’t want to recruit women only on the principle of equality, we want to have the best practitioner,” she says.

Even though the arts as a whole struggle with an inadequate representation of women, it seems as the though principle of equality has come a long way. Women are marginalized in many areas, but they are well represented in the political picture and in the cultural institutions.

“I think that any concrete initiative is positive. There are many women working as organizers, but few who make it to the top. We’ve still got a long way to go,” says Kvalbein.

Equality

Siri Øyslebø Sørensen, a PhD candidate, is researching equality in business administration. She says that much of the explanation lies in network building.

“Both formal and informal networks are important when it comes recruiting for leadership positions. Even though it’s not quite acceptable to have ‘boys clubs’ anymore, they still exist. Leadership has also been culturally associated with masculinity,” says Sørensen.

In addition, she explains that the division of labor in the home is still a deciding factor in the career choices of women.

“Women usually take the majority of parental leave [allowed in Norway] and are therefore away from work for longer periods of time. In the meantime, they are passed on the career ladder. It’s also still the case that women take on a larger part of the housework, so it’s impossible to have a job with requires as much as a leadership position often does,” she says.

She believes that measures to equal opportunities for the females in the working world. In private industry this kind of program has been successful.

“Initiatives directed towards women have been a fairly widespread means of working towards equal opportunity in the business sector. The intention behind these kinds of programs is to increase opportunities for women, and in many cases that’s enough.

Sørensen explains that organization such as NHO report positive results from their programs by the fact that more women get job offers for leadership positions.

“Initiatives for women contribute to making a willingness to change the gender imbalance more visible,” she says.

She believes that programs like these are necessary in many places, if only to make people more conscious of the problem. At the same time, Sørensen admits that programs developed specifically for women can lead to managers not taking responsibility.

“ ‘Women’s programs’ can blame gender disparity on women by that they’re the one who lack competence or motivation. I would like to see men be made to take responsibility in the same degree.”