Women Artists and Career Inequality in Contemporary Art

Presentation

Women artists are less visible than men artists in expositions, public and private collections, and the international art market. But paradoxically, around two-thirds of visual arts students and nearly half of visual artists are women in France. Does this mean that women are less artistically talented than men? Based on a multi-year study that combined ethnographic and statistical methods, this presentation offers a new perspective on gender inequality in artistic careers. I explore the career paths of the graduates of a prestigious French school for the visual arts and dive into the institutionalization of the gender gap in artistic higher education and in the contemporary art world. From the school's recruitment process to exhibitions in galleries, through artistic training and the construction of a professional network, the presentation accounts for the unfavorable mechanisms to women's artistic careers and highlights how some succeed despite them.

The presentation is based on the following publications: Mathilde Provansal, Artistes mais femmes. Une enquête sociologique dans l'art contemporain, ENS Éditions, 2023.

Mathilde Provansal, "Precarious professional identities. Women artists and gender inequality within contemporary art," L'Année Sociologique, vol. 74, no. 1, 2024, pp. 85-116