The logical successor can only be a woman.

Press release on October 12, 2009

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

Referring to the articles and discussions surrounding the succession of Linz's cultural director Siegbert Janko, LIVA board director and artistic director of the Brucknerhaus Wolfgang Winkler and AEC director Gerfried Stocker, we feel compelled to draw attention to the need for a gender balance at management level. The statistics are still shocking. In Austria, the proportion of women at this level is around 21%. (http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/soziales/gender-statistik/022...)

FIFTITU% hereby calls on all responsible politicians and committees to seize the opportunity and comply with this demand in order to not only pay lip service to gender symmetry in art and culture, but to take sustainable action. The selection process must be steered in this direction and made much more transparent than has been the case to date.

FIFTITU% calls for quotas:

50% of the budget must go to female artists and cultural workers. 50% of projects must be awarded to female artists. 50% of jobs in the organizational area at all levels - from management to leadership - must be given to women. Gender-relevant content must be guaranteed in program design through appropriate guidelines from cultural policy. Gender must be an important criterion in the selection process for artistic and cultural activities. In this respect, art and cultural policy must support the forward-looking development of the art and cultural scene in Linz.

A postscript on the quota:

When it comes to the issue of quotas, there are often heated debates about the pros and cons. As part of the project "The quota - a provocation", FIFTITU% has set up a website with an extensive collection of material. www.diequote.at There you will find information on the history of the quota and clever and stupid sayings. You will find statements by the Minister for Women's Affairs, an art historian, artists, a construction and cultural worker and many more. "I am a quota woman and proud of it..." is the title of the article by the Women's Representative of the City of Linz, for example. In her "Quoten-Blabla", Elfriede Hammerl asks why no one ever asks where so many qualified men come from and what is supposed to be unfair about half-and-half. In a virtual city view of Linz, you can click through the proportion of women and men among managers in Linz's cultural landscape. (as of 2005/2007)

Best regards

FIFTITU%
Birgit Pichler
Claudia Seigmann
Ursula Kolar- Hofstätter
Roswitha Kröll
Gerlinde Schmierer
Simone Boria
Iris Aue
Sabrina Kern

This letter is addressed to politicians, the press and those interested in the arts and culture