ABSTRACT
Stereotyping is found everywhere, in language and in behavior. Women are stereotyped early on as being good and compliant or being troublemakers. Studies point to the fact that lesbian employees earn the same and sometimes more than heterosexual women while women of color are frequently paid less than their Caucasian colleagues. Compounding the pay situation, museums differ markedly from for-profits in the pecuniary way they administer and fund human resources, stemming from a flawed nonprofit-equals-no-money philosophy. Operating budgets, combined with a museum's discipline and location, drive salaries, which in turn, permit more equitable salaries and raises. To add to the overall pay equity picture, women cluster in lower-paying museum jobs, choosing education and curatorial positions over higher paying C-suite jobs. Museums should work toward transparent salary scales and objective performance evaluations to eliminate gender stereotyping and discrimination. All museum employees would be protected from sexual harassment first by perfect coworkers and then by great policies and human resource directors.
