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https://www.theguardian.com/culture/article/2024/may/06/women-dominate-australian-arts-world-but-still-earn-less-than-men-reports-show>
"A portrait of an artist as a young man is more likely to be a portrait of an
artist as a middle age-woman in Australia today.
The seventh economic study of professional performing and visual artists and
writers across all art forms was released by Creative Australia (formerly the
Australia Council) on Tuesday, and women working in the sector now outnumber
men two to one. And the average age of a professional artist is 48 for women
and 49 for men.
But while women dominate six of the eight categories covering visual artists,
musicians, composers and songwriters, actors and directors, dancers and
choreographers and writers – the Australian literary scene shows an 83%
dominance in female authors – women are still earning 19% less than their male
colleagues.
The co-author of the report, professor of economics at Macquarie University
David Throsby, said the gender pay gap was a reflection of economic and social
discrimination in the economy at large.
“It exists in as much as it does anywhere else, but that’s still a bit of a
surprise,” he said. “You think of artists as being pretty much up with the
social mood of the day and in fact leaders in terms of social behaviour, and
yet we still have this gender-based discrimination there.”
That’s not to say things haven’t improved for female artists, Throsby said,
since he conducted his first survey into working artists in 1983.
By 2001 the average total income of men artists was still 57% higher than that
of women, reducing to 38% in 2008, and 32% in 2015.
The current study draws data from 2017 to 2022, involving the online responses
of 637 workers who met the university-determined criteria of professional
practising artist and 477 detailed interviews.
The research found that male artists, on average, earned $25,100 for their core
creative work compared with $22,600 for female artists. When additional
art-related income such as teaching and mentoring was factored in, the average
male artist earned $17,600 in 2021–22, significantly more than the $13,800
earned by the average female artist. Non-art-related income increased the
disparity even further."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
