THE arts minister, Margaret Hodge, has attacked the “ludicrous” underrepresentation of women in the boardrooms of British cultural institutions and accused them of “paying lip service” to equal opportunities.

Hodge plans to advertise in women’s magazines such as Vogue, Marie Claire and The Lady in an attempt to raise the proportion of women running museums, galleries and theatres from a third to a half.

Hodge said she was shocked that she was often the only woman in meetings of publicly funded arts bodies.

“It’s time for a change,” she said. “It’s ludicrous that the proportion of women on the boards of our public bodies is no better than that achieved by the big private companies. Publicly funded bodies should lead the way on equality and diversity, and I want to see a change right here, right now.”

Although women are well represented in the middle echelons of arts organisations few are in charge. Among those who hold top jobs are Diane Lees, who has just been appointed director-gen-eral of the Imperial War Museum, Virginia Tandy, the director of Manchester City Art Galleries, and Moira Stevenson, her deputy.

Dame Vivien Duffield left the board of the Royal Opera House after a battle with the chairman, Sir Colin Southgate, even though she gave it millions of pounds of her own money and managed to raise millions more from private benefactors.

Mary Allen, who also had strained relations with Southgate, resigned after a seven-month stint as chief executive.

The culture department is responsible for appointing board members of about 70 bodies, including the BBC, English Heritage and the British Museum.

Only six of 21 trustees on the board of the British Museum are women, and at the Tate the proportion is four out of 11. The four female trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum include Betty Jackson, the fashion designer, and Dame Marjorie Scardino, chief executive of the FTSE 100 company Pearson.

This is not the first time Hodge has criticised imbalances on arts bodies. Her recent attack on the BBC Proms for allegedly failing to ensure that people from different backgrounds “feel at ease” found little support.

Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary, said quotas for women were not the right approach.

“It’s very important that people are chosen on their merit and not to fill some arbitrary quota. Nothing would be more insulting than to think that a woman has been appointed just because of her sex rather than her contribution,” he said.

However, one of the most senior women in the arts world, Paula Ridley, who was until recently chairman of the V&A board, said Hodge was right to try to find more women to take up senior arts positions.

“There are lots of women working in the arts but she is right that there are not many women on boards. I do think that it is important that there is a mix. Women bring an extra dimension,” she said. “I don’t think political correctness is the issue – it is just a general wish to have diversity on boards to make them more interesting and valuable.”

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