Women and Art: Why Are Male Artists More Successful Than Females?

photo: Thinkstock

When thinking about areas where women are misrepresented, we usually imagine a traditional office setting, with women being passed up by men for managerial positions, or getting lower raises. We forget that women are also underrepresented in more non-traditional workplaces, like the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Half of the trained artists in the U.S. are women, yet they make up just 2% of the artists whose work hangs in the National Gallery. And, as Salon points out, this isn’t just a problem rooted in historical gender issues – at the contemporary art-focused Hirshhorn Museum, women make up only 5% of featured artists.

Pamela T. Boll examines this disparity and its causes in her documentary Who Does She Think She Is? Though the film was released in 2008, the momentum around it is building as it makes its rounds to college campuses, fundraisers, and PBS. You can even host a screening party, complete with invitations, posters, and a discussion guide. Even just watching the preview wrenches your heart a little. Keep an eye out for screenings near you.

via Salon