Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, Iwona Blazwick - could she be the next director of Tate? Photograph: Eamonn McCabe
It has been said - not least by some of the women I interviewed for my piece in G2 today, and by the Observer's art critic, Laura Cumming - that anyone who decries the lack of women running arts institutions in Britain simply doesn't know enough about the industry they're attacking.
Several women out there believe that this is no longer an issue, that feminism has done its work and we can now move on to tackle more pressing problems: chiefly, race and class divides, both behind the scenes and in audiences.
Then there is another camp: women who have been working in the arts for decades, who have seen doors open to women during the course of their careers but remain aware how few women have passed through them. Keeping the question of women's status on the agenda, they argue, ensures that the doors don't close again.
No one thinks that the arts world is sexist; in fact, it's possible to point to several men who have worked hard to give women the best possible opportunities - look at Nicholas Hytner at the National Theatre, or Nicholas Serota at Tate. By contrast, a surprising number of women think that we are our own worst enemies, holding back through a fear of appearing ambitious, or because motherhood takes over.
The fact is, we are still in a position where women are achieving things for the first time: this year we will see the first original play by a female playwright on the Olivier stage, for instance. If we didn't keep the debate about women alive, it's possible that those firsts would be unique incidents - or never happen at all.
