Appendix B: Detailed Demographics and Institutional Context

Gender

The majority of respondents to MMF’s survey identify as women (71%),²⁵ with a quarter identifying as men (25%) and 5% identifying as non-binary, gender neutral, or other gender.

Race and Ethnicity

The vast majority of respondents identify as white (78%),²⁶ followed by Latinx (12%), Black and Asian (each 8%), multiracial (6%), Native American or Alaska Native (2%), Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) (1%), and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders (< 1%). Respondents were given the option to “select all that apply” from a list of racial and ethnic categories. Respondents who selected more than one racial group were also classified as multiracial (and kept in each of the racial groups they elected). Those who selected Hispanic or Latinx could also select (and be counted in) a separate racial identity. Therefore, responses by race and ethnicity add up to more than 100%. This approach privileges the multiplicity of individual identities held by art museum staff over the priority of having proportions for this category sum to 100%.

Age/Generation

The majority of our survey respondents, born between 1981 and 1996, are part of the Millennial generation (47%). This is followed by Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980) at 32%, Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) at 14%, and Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) at 7%.

Disability Status

In this study, 17% of respondents shared they have a disability, which is a lower rate than reported among the US population overall, at 27%.²⁷ There is a linear correlation between disability status and age. A remarkable number of Gen Z workers report having a disability (39%); rates are also higher among Millennials (21%), but lower among Gen X (11%) and Baby Boomers (9%).

Full-time and Part-time Status

The vast majority of survey respondents are full-time workers (86%), a number likely skewed by the lack of designated museum email addresses and the restraint of hourly work schedules characteristic of part-time employment. Full-time workers are more likely to feel included in museum research and more likely to be aware that research is underway. However, the actual proportion of full-time workers in these institutions is 65%, according to data provided by HR officers, so it’s important to note that part-time workers are underrepresented in this sample and that full-time voices are overrepresented.

Seniority

Experienced (non-managers) make up the largest proportion of art museum workers (46%), followed by managers (with one or more direct reports, 27%), entry-level workers (13%), director-level workers (9%), and executives (6%).

Museum workers who are non-binary or have another gender identity are disproportionately in entry-level roles (28% of non-binary workers vs. 13% overall) and experienced non-manager positions (52% vs. 46% overall). Women are more likely to be in entry-level positions than men (13% vs. 9% overall) while men are more likely to be in manager positions than women (31% vs. 26% overall). Men and women are about equally likely to be in experienced non-manager, director-level, and executive/leadership roles given their total numbers.

There are some interesting patterns in seniority level by race and ethnicity. Asian workers are disproportionately likely to be in the two lower position levels—entry-level (19% vs. 13% overall) and experienced non-manager (51% vs. 46%)—and commensurately less likely to be in manager (22% vs. 27%) and director-level (3% vs. 9%) roles. The average executive worker is most likely to be white, but Black and MENA workers are more likely than average to be in executive positions (12% and 14% vs. 6% overall).

Tenure

On average, art museum workers have been in the field for 10.6 years and at their current institutions for seven years, so the majority of their time in the field has been at the same institution. Those working in collections tend to have longer tenures, likely due to the fact they have more specialized roles (conservators and curators, for example) and there are fewer job opportunities available in the field.

There are key connections between a worker’s tenure in art museums and their gender, race, and/or ethnicity. Men have been in the field for an average of twelve years compared to women (average of ten years); this drops significantly for nonbinary or other gender workers, who have been in the field for an average of four years. white workers have the longest tenure in the field (11 years), followed by Native American or Alaska Native (10), MENA (9), Black (8), multiracial (8), Asian (8), Latinx (7), and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (5) workers.

At their current institutions, men again have the longest average tenures (9 years), followed by women (7) and non-binary/ other gender workers (2). white workers have the longest institutional tenures at 8 years, followed by Native American or Alaska Native (6), Black (6), MENA (5), multiracial (4), Latinx (4), Asian (4), and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (3) workers.

Simply put, white men have the longest average tenures within their respective museums and in the field as a whole.

Sexual Orientation

The majority of survey respondents identify as heterosexual (71%); 29% identify as LGBTQ, 10% as bisexual, 6% as gay, 3% as pansexual, 2% as lesbian, 1% as asexual, and 7% as another sexual orientation/no label.

Education Level

The most common level of education among art museum workers is a master’s degree (42%), followed by a bachelor’s degree (40%). Similar proportions of workers hold a professional or doctorate degree (8%) as hold some college/associate’s degree (9%). Just 2% have a high-school degree as their highest level of education. Women in museums tend to achieve higher average education levels than men.

Department

Overall, administration roles make up the largest proportion of art museum workers (42%) in this study, followed by collections (33%), public engagement (27%), building operations (24%), and communications (15%).²⁸ Art museum workers could select more than one department, and the individual departments have been collapsed into five main thematic areas for ease of interpretation (the full list of departments and how they map to these thematic areas is available in the Glossary of Terms).

Racial diversity differs considerably across departments in art museums, with public engagement and building operations roles reflecting the greatest proportion of POC workers. Hispanic/Latinx workers are also represented at high rates in communications roles, perhaps due to field-wide attempts for greater Spanish-language accessibility.