Business and Culture
The Worst Field for Women
This industry has one of the highest rates of pay inequity, harassment, and lack of opportunity—and you engage with this industry every day
Although the arts are often associated with femininity, men have controlled the industry for centuries. Because of this control, female artists have been infrequently covered and insufficiently credited in history, and that narrative unfortunately carries into modern day media coverage.
“History is written by Victors “ — Winston Churchill
Win-loss dilemma aside, women lose when female artists don’t receive fair coverage because artists are remembered by their influence — and history shows they often don’t receive enough attention to exercise the influence they deserve.
Media has a powerful ability to form the ideas we have and the stories we find important. Agenda setting is the process of curating specific information among a cluster of relevant articles and stories of the day to create a cohesive string of information that becomes the modern news cycle.
The media lens decides what is important and what sectors of inequality are covered
The written and visual media you consume obviously impact your perspective, but less obviously, your perspective is also impacted by the authors and artists creating media. The Global Media Monitoring Project found that less than 30% of published stories are written by women, and 19% of expert witnesses are women. Is media coverage really complete if it’s only being told from the gendered perspective of roughly half the population?
Creative Industries is One of the Worst Sectors of Inequality for Women
Even before #MeToo, allegations against photographers were astir in photographer communities across the world.
In the article, ‘Creepy Photographers Are a Well-Documented Fashion Industry Problem’, Rae Alexandra asserts that the fashion industry operates as a hunting group for predators to exploit budding models and actresses.
Per Rae Alexandra,
Until there are real repercussions for the perpetrators, there can be no doubt that models of all genders will be left vulnerable to exploitation at the hands of creeps with cameras.
Stories of predators like Marcus Hyde and Terry Richardson depict the opportunity prominent photographers have to exploit their position and misuse the vulnerability of their subjects during a shoot for personal, seditious gain.
Models are expected to be comfortable in compromising situations with little choice of clothing and degree of decency if they want to progress their career. However, in front of or behind the camera, the industry can be insurmountable and hostile to women.
How to Support Women in the Arts
A critical step for every artist is getting showcased in institutions of high regard. This critical display is what designates a renowned artist from the amateur, but since the ancient Greek forums where artists first gathered in a structured manner, these galleries have not had equal access.
Support institutions that showcase female artists
There are organizations that have diversity initiatives that help support women in photography and other art forms, and you can find a list of those institutions below;
Outside of a weekend stroll through your local gallery, you can also grow your own home collection by consciously purchasing art from female artists. Commissioning work from female collectives helps them develop their portfolio and develop their ability to grow their profession.
Success begets success, especially in the arts
Portfolio work is more valuable when there is a commercial quality to the work; new artists may work for free or very little, but women especially are offered little early-in-career opportunities where they can quickly grow their commission rates. Women in the arts on average earn $20,000 less than their male counterparts (representing a 30% income gap) according to Artsy.
Women have a lot of power in this commercial landscape, as Jill Greenberg said at Tedx Wabash College; 85% of consumer purchases are made by women. Despite having the power of the purse, less than a third of money made in the arts will end up with female artists.
This disparity can change by changing perspectives on the female artist. If you cannot go into these galleries you can explore online;
From this database that showcased over 400 women photographers across 100+ countries over the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic by showcasing their stories of isolation and strife.
On social Media you can use popular hashtags such as #FemaleArtists and #FemalePhotographer in order to find artists actively posting and looking for engagement.
How to Support Women in Modeling and in Media
There are a few international advisory groups that help forecast the growth of women in media that you can follow.
The Free Press Unlimited provides the reader with curated content made by women and reviews of publications that have made strides in promoting women in both content and in features.
The international Women’s Media Foundation is a good source for students and people early in their journalistic careers to find resources, funding, and opportunities to grow their career and pursue the once-thought-impossible.
Shatter Stereotypes, Demand Labor Rights
The Model Alliance provides support, triage, and awareness around rights for women in the modeling industry. This resource is fantastic for parents, friends, or family of those looking to go into modeling and has plenty of localized information based upon your intended market.
The Industry is Cold, but People are Always the Solution
Through supporting artists as they get started, behind or in front of the camera, we can improve the photography industry for women. Small acts such as accepting her rates for photo shoots, commissioning her work while she is starting out or a student, and believing her if a incident does occur is vital to this undertaking.
It takes a village and it starts with you
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