Get the Facts

A vertical rectangle with a dense, textile-like pattern is divided into quadrants. Evenly sized, lozenge-shaped dark brushstrokes radiate out diagonally from a center point, nearly hiding a bright pink ground. — Andrea Higgins, *Hillary*, 2002; Oil on canvas, 52 x 40 x 2 3/4 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection; © Andrea Higgins; Photo by Lee Stalsworth

Learn about gender inequity in the arts with some eye-opening facts.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

The truth is that women have never been treated equally in the art world, and today they remain dramatically underrepresented and undervalued in museums, galleries, and auction houses. Counting and quantifying won’t solve discrimination, but statistics are useful for understanding the scope of the problem. As NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling says, “People in the art world want to think we are achieving parity more quickly than we are.”

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Between 2008 and 2020, only 11% of acquisitions and 14.9% of exhibitions at 31 representative U.S. museums were of work by women artists. Burns Halperin Report 2022
Category: Museums & Galleries
The record for the most expensive work by a living woman artist at auction was set by Jenny Saville, whose painting Propped (1992) sold for $12.4 million in 2018. This sum is still dwarfed by the record for a living male artist: a Jeff Koons work that sold for $91.1 million in 2019. At the same sale where Saville made history, less than 10% of the rest of the works for sale were by women artists.
Category: Art Market
In a study of 820,000 exhibitions across the public and commercial sectors in 2018, only one third featured women artists. "Gallery representation dwindles for established female artists," The Art Newspaper
Category: Museums & Galleries
A recent survey of the permanent collections of 18 prominent U.S. art museums found that the represented artists are 87% male and 85% white. "Diversity of artists in major U.S. museums," Public Library of Science
Category: Museums & Galleries
Just 24% of the 27,000 artists shown at art fairs in 2018 were women. Art fair sales that year totaled $16.5 billion. The Global Art Market Report 2019 (Art Basel/UBS)
Category: Art Fairs, Awards, & Publications
Only 29% of the winners of the Turner Prize, one of the best-known visual art awards, have been women—though several women have won over the past decade. In 2017, Lubaina Himid became the first woman of color to win. Tate list of Turner Prize winners
Category: Art Fairs, Awards, & Publications
Only 13.7% of living artists represented by galleries in Europe and North America are women. "The 4 Glass Ceilings: How Women Artists Get Stiffed at Every Stage of Their Careers," artnet News
Category: Museums & Galleries
Women earn 70% of bachelor of fine arts and 65–75% of master of fine arts degrees in the U.S., though only 46% of working artists (across all arts disciplines) are women.
Category: Education
The good news is that in 2005, women ran 32% of museums in the United States, and they now run 47.6%—albeit mainly the ones with the smallest budgets. Association of Art Museum Directors
Category: Leadership
ArtReview’s 2018 Power 100 list of the “most influential people in the contemporary art world” included 40% women—a slight improvement from 2017 (38%) and 2016 (32%). Art Review
Category: Demographics & Compensation
Despite some evidence that galleries with higher numbers of women artists perform better overall, women still account for only 40% of artists represented by galleries. The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2024
Category: Museums & Galleries
There are no women in the top 0.03% of the auction market, where 41% of the profit is concentrated. Overall, 96% of artworks sold at auction are by male artists. Bocart et al., “Glass Ceilings in the Art Market”
Category: Art Market
Women still occupy fewer directorships at museums with budgets over $15 million, holding 30% of art museum director positions and earning 75¢ for every dollar earned by male directors. The Ongoing Gender Gap in Art Museum Directorships, AAMD
Category: Leadership
Between 2008 and 2020, just .5% of acquisitions at 31 representative U.S. museums were of work by Black American women. Burns Halperin Report 2022
Category: Museums & Galleries
Art by women only accounted for 9.3% of total auction sales in 2022. "The State of the Market for Women Artists' Work," Artsy
Category: Art Market
Nearly half (45.8%) of visual artists in the United States are women; on average, they earn 74¢ for every dollar made by male artists. National Endowment for the Arts
Category: Demographics & Compensation
In the field of architecture, only 7% of Pritzker Prize winners, and less than 3% of AIA Gold Medal winners, were women. Pritzker Architecture Prize winners
Category: Art Fairs, Awards, & Publications
Of the 3,050 galleries in the Artsy database, 10% represent not a single woman artist, while only 8% represent more women than men. Almost half represent 25% or fewer women. The Global Art Market Report 2019 (Art Basel/UBS)
Category: Museums & Galleries
The most expensive work sold by a woman artist at auction was Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 (1932), sold in 2014 for $44.4 million—more than $400 million less than the auction record for a male artist: Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, sold in 2017 for $450.3 million. "Leonardo da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3 Million, Shattering Auction Highs," New York Times
Category: Art Market
Women in the arts are found not to experience the “motherhood penalty”—lost or stagnant income after children. But men in the arts do receive an income bump when they become fathers. Artsy
Category: Demographics & Compensation
Women make up a majority of professional art museum staff; despite recent gains, they remain underrepresented in leadership positions. Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey 2018
Category: Leadership
Between 2008 and mid-2022, art by women accounted for 9.3% of all auction sales. Burns Halperin Report 2022
Category: Art Market
In the U.K., 64% of undergraduates and 65% of postgraduates in creative arts and design are women, but 68% of the artists represented at top London commercial galleries are men. Freelands Foundation
Category: Education
In a sample of 1.9 million auction transactions in 49 countries, paintings by female artists sell at an unconditional discount of 42.1%. Adams, et al., "Gendered Prices"
Category: Art Market
In 2022 the top auction result for an artwork by a male artist, Andy Warhol's Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964), was more than seven times Georgia O'Keffee's White Rose with Larkspur No. I (1972), that year’s top auction result for an artwork by a woman artist. "The State of the Market for Women Artists' Work," Artsy
Category: Art Market
Artworks by women account for only 39% of gallery sales. The Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report 2024
Category: Museums & Galleries
The NEA found that as women artists age, they earn progressively less than their male artist counterparts. Women artists aged 55–64 earn only 66¢ for each $1 earned by men National Endowment for the Arts
Category: Demographics & Compensation
Between 2008 and mid-2022, art by Black American women comprised just .1% of all auction sales. Burns Halperin Report 2022
Category: Art Market
Since 2008 auction sales of work by Pablo Picasso alone totaled $6.23 billion. Art by all women artists, in every genre, on the other hand, generated $6.2 billion. Burns Halperin Report 2022
Category: Art Market
At the current rate of growth, we won’t see gender parity in the auction market until 2053. Burns Halperin Report 2022
Category: Art Market
At the Art Basel fairs (Basel, Miami, and Hong Kong), women made up less than a quarter of the artists on view over the past four years. "Female Artists Represent Just 2 Percent of the Market. Here’s Why—and How That Can Change," artnet News
Category: Art Fairs, Awards, & Publications
In the top 20 most popular exhibitions around the world in 2018, only one was headlined by a woman artist: Joana Vasconcelos: I’m Your Mirror at the Guggenheim Bilbao. "2018's most visited shows and museums," The Art Newspaper
Category: Museums & Galleries
Though women earn 71% of the art degrees in Australia, only 33.9% of artists represented in state-run galleries and museums are women—a decrease of 3% from 2016. Countess Report 2019
Category: Education
From 2011 to 2017, the Venice Biennale featured 26–43% women artists. The 2019 edition of the major international exhibition of contemporary art finally achieved gender parity, with 53% women artists. "An Unusual Time for Women at the Venice Biennale," Elephant Art
Category: Art Fairs, Awards, & Publications

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