Research Finds Gender Gap Among College Graduates of Art Programs

A new report from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) finds gender differences among students who majored in the arts in college. The report includes a survey of more than 65,000 arts alumni of all ages from 120 colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. SNAAP defines “the arts” to include a broad range of creative activity, including performance, design, architecture, creative writing, music composition, choreography, film, illustration, and fine art.

One of the more positive findings in the report shows that women who studied in art disciplines in college and had careers in the field faced no wage penalty when they had children, unlike women working in most other fields.

But women who studied in the arts where significantly less likely than their male peers to work professionally in the arts after completing their education. Less than 70 percent of women arts graduates have ever worked in the field and only 54 percent currently do so. For men, 77 percent have worked in the field and 64 percent currently do so.

For graduates who work full-time in the field, men are almost twice as likely as women to have incomes of more than $50,000.

SNAAP, established in 2008, is a collaboration between the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and the Vanderbilt University Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy. The report, An Uneven Canvas: Inequalities in Artistic Training and Careers, may be downloaded by clicking here.