In the art world, men earn 50 percent more than women

Press release
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  • Sponsorship

In the Dutch art world income and opportunities are very unevenly divided between women and men, according to “Een nog onverteld verhaal”, the report published today by WOMEN Inc. and ABN AMRO. For every 100 euros a female artist currently earns in annual income, her male counterpart receives 50 euros more in his bank account. While the majority of Dutch people surveyed are aware that men earn more than women in the art world, the size of the income gap comes as a surprise to many. In an additional survey held by PanelWizard, 81 percent of respondents asked to guess the difference underestimated it.

“What this report shows is that inequality in the cultural sector is not just enormous, but also systemic,” says Emma Lok, director of women’s rights advocacy group WOMEN Inc. Sander Bestevaar, head of Sponsoring & Events at ABN AMRO, agrees. “The fact that men earn more than women is not new to us, but the income gap in the cultural sector is off the scale.” This year, ABN AMRO and WOMEN Inc. launched a collaboration to address inequality like this.

Unconscious bias

The report makes clear that inequality between women and men in the visual arts is more than a matter of income. Other areas where it rears its ugly head are representation and unconscious bias. For example, only 13 percent of the art on display in the eight largest Dutch museums was made by women. Worse still, 70 percent of all art exhibitions in the Netherlands do not feature a single work of art by a woman.

Meanwhile, unconscious bias leads to art being valued less the moment people know it was made by a woman. “Inequality in the art world reflects the inequality between men and women in society at large,” says Lok. “Art causes wonder, and it can give us a new perspective on our own reality. That’s why it’s so important that museums offer a diversity of stories, and that these stories are valued equally.’’

Inequality outdated

The same sentiment emerges in the additional survey held among 1,188 people in the Netherlands. Eight out of ten respondents find it inexplicable that male artists earn so much more. Women are even more outspoken than men on this topic: 90 percent of female respondents calls the income gap outdated, against 73% of the men who participated.

ABN AMRO and WOMEN Inc. believe that more awareness and concrete measures are needed to improve equality in the art world. “The sector itself is already taking its first steps in the right direction. We embrace that, of course, but we also feel that the pace of change could be faster,” says Bestevaar.

About the report

“An untold story” is based on extensive desk research into available data about gender in the visual arts. In addition, interviews were held with nine experts from the world of art, ranging from artists to museum directors. The full report is available (in Dutch) here.

About the additional survey on the income gap in the art sector

The survey, commissioned by ABN AMRO, was carried out by PanelWizard in July 2022. The survey was held among 1,188 people aged 18 and over, living in the Netherlands and representative in terms of sex, age, family situation, labour participation, education and region.

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