According to the data produced by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, around 51 percent of visual artists are women. However, when it comes to representation in exhibitions and galleries, the numbers tell a less optimistic story. In London alone, 78 percent of the art galleries represent men more than women. Only about 5 percent of the galleries represent an equal number of artists from both genders. One study found that artwork from men made up to 96% of the art sold at auctions globally between 2000 and 2017.
In a recent study, a team at Yale tried to untangle the causes behind this lag by examining data on 4,000 graduates of the Yale School of Art from the past century. The researchers divided the compiled data into two major time periods: before 1983, when the male students at the Yale School of Art outnumbered female students, and after 1983 when both male and female students were roughly equal.
The research revealed that prior to 1983, the fraction of artists who sold their artwork at auctions was lower among female artists in comparison to their male counterparts. However, those female graduates who sold their artwork featured higher on average auction prices when compared to their male peers. This was interpreted as the work created by women being of much better quality than that by men. Researchers say that though the art market is fair, the institutions of art are not. Women face comparatively more institutional obstacles and might have to produce higher-quality work to excel in the art market. However, the good thing about this aspect is that once women artists reach the market, their talent is rewarded with more money. It was found that women's work sold 35% more compared to that with similar characteristics by men. An international study that analyzed about 2.6 million auction transactions suggested that between 2000 to 2017, women's art sold at least 4% more than that of men.
After comparing the two time periods (before 1983 and after), the researchers found that the difference in access to auctions and price rankings were not so significant and suggested that some barriers weakened after 1983. Before 1983, representation at art auctions and exhibitions was lopsided: 14% of the male artists sold at least one piece of artwork, while only about 7% of female artists did so. However, after 1983, these figures evened out to about 8-9 percent and were no longer significantly different.
However, there was still another part of the coin that revealed a different story. When the researchers studied the Google Books for the artists who had sold one piece at the art auctions and calculated the ratio of book citations of both genders, they found that before 1983, men were mentioned about three to 14 times more than women, and even after 1983, citations of male artists were still three times more frequent. Yet, even after gender parity was reached in art classes after 1983, the names of women artists were still less likely to be mentioned in the books, which often translated to lower awareness of their work. This hinted that art curators need to work hard to find female artists who are left out of the spotlight. Though the researchers found that before 1983, women faced comparatively more barriers to entering the art market, the hurdles were still prevalent.
In the US alone, women earn 70 percent of Bachelor of Fine Arts and 65–75 percent of Master of Fine Arts degrees, yet only 46 percent of working artists are women. The three most-visited museums in the world, the British Museum, the Louvre, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, have never had female directors. A recent survey of the permanent collections at 18 prominent art museums in the United States found that the represented artists are 87 percent male and 85 percent white. Yet, despite all the obstacles, barriers, and prejudices, women continue to fight for their share of the space in the world of art.
Art Review's 2018 Power list of the 100 most influential persons in contemporary art included 40% women. This showed that women were making progress when compared to earlier Power 100 lists, which included 38 percent of women in 2017 and 32 percent in 2016. Women in art are also not found to experience the motherhood penalty, which results in lost or stagnant income after childbirth. However, male artists receive an income bump after becoming fathers.
Though the fight is tough and there is a long way to go, so many passionate women artists are conquering the art world on all fronts. This can be better explained with the example of the Venice Biennale — a major exhibition of contemporary art. Between 2011 and 2017, it featured only 26–43 percent of women artists, yet the 2019 edition finally achieved gender parity, wherein 53 percent of women artists were featured. were featured.
