Re-reading collections. A sustainable toolkit to achieve gender equality in museums

During the last century, collections in heritage institutions have been constructed with heteropatriarchal bias, considering women as desired objects rather than creators, patrons, and artists as active protagonists of historical narratives. Excluding them as exceptions creates an important bias in how culture is approached. Nonetheless, some heritage institutions are eager to transform their sustainability aspirations and commitments into action. In this context, the Re-reading Collections Toolkit was produced to address Sustainable Development Goal 5 (part of UN Agenda 2030) 'Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls'. This paper presents the rationale behind the development of such a toolkit and its application in the National Museum of Ceramics (Spain). This paper presents an initiative that aims to pave the way for gender equality in the Cultural Heritage sector at the time and provides credible evidence to demonstrate that heritage collections can contribute significantly and measurably to sustainable development