Museums are colonial and patriarchal in their foundation and current configurations. Patriarchy must be worked through, worked on, continually undone and made visible in its many forms. Like whiteness and privilege, its expression is normalized in our culture, enforced in everyday ways, and stands out (is called out) only when it takes on its more extreme forms of violence, misogyny, and sexism. The Readying The Museum cohort struggled to address the presence of patriarchy within itself and across gender expression. Even as patriarchy was called out or called to task internally, it re-presented itself over and again, not only in the words of individuals but in the very process and organization of the group's labor and practices.

In its most basic form, male-identifying members of the cohort failed to fully address growing concerns made by the cohort's female-identifying members. Nor did the cohort do the work it could have of engaging or advocating for male-identifying Queer members who were part of the cohort. Ultimately, from inception to this point, the work of RTM was done primarily by female-identifying members, and frankly this is the case throughout the museum field.

Even as members of the patriarchy group struggled to do the work in a systematic way, they did pursue personal and interpersonal ways for learning, modeling, and exemplifying genuine practices for undoing patriarchy. There were moments of revelatory healing and genuine expression shared with the cohort about how patriarchy has exerted itself in our ancestral heritages, interpersonal relationships, artistic practices, uses of language, directorial approaches. We leaned on our personal partners who became integral in our discussions during the retreats and at home. These willing partners did the work with us that we could not ask the group to do. As we deepened our understanding and language around patriarchy, we deepened our relationships and trust within the group. The work presented in this section is not refined, but it returns again and again to ideas about anticipating care, acknowledging labor, reflecting on our internalized practices, and the work still to do to create safe harbors from patriarchy's ugly effects.

Museums readying themselves should form a facilitated sub-group to address the way patriarchy has shaped the conditions for labor and power within the museum. Patriarchy exists at every level of a museum’s environment. While male-identifying members should audit the division of labor conducted within their institutions, and do the collective work of accessing and unlearning forms of patriarchy in their work and personal lives, this sub-group should also grapple with the fact that patriarchy is organized within all systems and all persons, regardless of sex and gender.

Like the whiteness sub-group, making acknowledgement and offerings to the larger cohort is a key ingredient to building trust and understanding. The patriarchy group of RTM will continue to work with greater rigor as we move into Phase Two of our work.