In recent years, there has been a worldwide increase in exhibitions that focus on female artists. Women are increasingly gaining key positions in the state-funded art world and the art market is
also catching up with a greater presence of female artists. Nevertheless, there is still a serious gender pay and gender show gap.
The number of artworks by women on permanent display in the museum sector remains low: there are hardly any female artists to be found in art collections well into the last quarter of the 20th
century. A museum such as the Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin, with around 2.7% female artists in its permanent collection, is representative of comparable collections. In the contemporary art scene,
there is likewise a need to do more, but there are also some encouraging examples of gender-balanced curation, such as the new presentation of the 21st century collection at the Hamburger Bahnhof
- Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart.
Despite largely equal representation on committees and juries, an increase in the number of female museum directors and an increase in solo exhibitions, even at renowned institutions, collection
presentations are rarely reconfigured. One of the reasons for this is the male-dominated art canon that has been promoted and practiced at universities, museums and exhibition venues - even by
female directors - while the reappraisal of women's artistic biographies and oeuvres has only made slow progress often leaving collections untouched.
The fair share! alliance sets out the following specific demands in a manifesto:
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Recognition and re-evaluation of the achievements of women artists from all centuries to the present day
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Gender-equitable acquisition and exhibition policies
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Increase the presence of works by female authors in exhibition collections - in the contemporary field to at least 50%
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Increase solo exhibitions of contemporary female artists to 50%
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Promotion of research projects and academic publications on female artists
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Increase the proportion of women in teaching assignments and professorships at art colleges and academies, film schools, etc. to 50%
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Gender-equitable awarding of commissions for introductory speeches, essays in exhibition catalogs and monographs
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Increasing funding and prizes for female artists of all ages
