Americans for the Arts

There is so much to write in a blog about female leadership in the nonprofit arts world. I’ve been incredibly lucky in my professional and personal life. My experiences in adversity are real, but they are also privileged. I’m white, come from a wonderfully loving home, and am able-bodied. I have generally been surrounded by supportive people—women—family, friends, coworkers. I don’t have a lot of stories about being held back or feeling discrimination, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have them. The Nonprofit Leadership Workbook for Women notes that while 73% of all nonprofit employees are women, we only account for 45% of nonprofit CEOs. Slightly better than the 5% of female CEOs in the Fortune 500. I was honored to become the executive director of my organization very early in career, well before I was ready. But that’s the thing about women, right? We face challenges head on. We take advantage of opportunities when they arise. We figure it all out as we go. We must. We’re spending our days making the world a better place.

My Feminist mom learned in the working world of the 1970s what it was like to move through patriarchal spaces. Women leaders: those times, they have not fully “a-changed”. You will be belittled, left out. Your appearance is foremost in their minds. Worst of all, other women will cut you down. Confident women: you will be called loud. You are told to moderate your confidence level, called strident. You are not the problem. It’s their expectations that are the problem. In art, we must all be activists. We “fight” not just for funding and support, but also to be included at all planning tables. We should fight to speak for those whose voices may not be in the room—or who are never invited in the first place.