Why are there so few prominent women in the art world?

If women in publishing have it bad, then the gender gap in the visual arts is even worse

Art gallery
(Image credit: (REUTERS/Neil Hall))

"Counting," the editors of the London Review of Books declared, "is a feminist weapon."

They were responding to the latest numbers by the advocacy organization VIDA, which conducts an annual count of the number of women published in popular and literary magazines. LBR's response was meant to be as dismissive at it sounds — after all, the magazine had one of the worse male-to-female ratios in the publishing industry. But scoffing aside, counting has become a tool in the feminist arsenal. Every year VIDA, unsurprisingly, reveals a sizable gender gap in the publishing industry — and their methods are being adopted in other fields, as well.

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Stassa Edwards is a freelance writer from the Deep South.