By Amie Condon
The Center for American Progress released The Shriver Report last week, a comprehensive analysis of the social and economic gains of American women and families over the last thirty-five years since the advent of second wave of feminism.
The report points to significant strides toward women’s equality:
• Four of the eight Ivy League university presidents are women;
• 42 percent of high school athletes are girls;
• 60 percent of college degrees are awarded to women;
• 50 percent of all Ph.Ds are held by women;
• Women make up 50 percent of the U.S. work force;
• 40 percent of those working women hold managerial or professional positions;
• Mothers are the primary breadwinners in 40 percent of families; and
• Women make 80 percent of all buying decisions.
A TIME Magazine/Rockefeller Foundation survey found that, “the notion that women’s rise comes at men’s expense,” has all but dissipated, marking a paradigm shift in American male thinking.
These do not suggest, however, we are anywhere near the age of post-feminism, especially when considering a study released last year by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
“The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness” assessed women and men across multiple sectors: age, education, employment, marital status, parenthood and income, and found that women’s happiness quotient had declined since 1972 (when the first samples were taken) ever so slightly even as they gained more power.
The 10-second sound bite reverberating through the 24 hour cable news echo chamber was that feminism equaled unhappiness.
Dr. Lisa Young, a SCAD professor of art history who teaches a course in Art and Feminism, says she was shocked “how quickly [this article] became a media misreading.”
“It feeds perfectly into reactive hands,” she said. “It begs the question: does happiness come at the price of ignorance?”
This response, Young offers, suggests feminism has not achieved a greater degree of respect and that there still is much work to do.
“We need to envision what’s next,” Young said, citing workplace values, earning power, the status of women globally and the art world as areas that need attention.
In 1973 in the midst of the Women’s Movement, women represented only 16 percent of full-time art history faculty in accredited universities and colleges. Twenty-five years later, that figure rose to 48 percent, even while the majority of art school graduates were (and still are) women.
Of the almost 920,000 visual, performing, design, graphic and other artists working in 2005, almost half were women, according to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Their earning power, however, was 25 percent less than their male counterparts. This disparity grew worse for women as they aged and the higher up the ladder they climbed. Performing arts was the only sector showing parity.
Women remain vastly under-represented in the fields of architecture (20 percent), producers/directors (35 percent) and musicians (36 percent).
Women have gained in positions as art directors, curators and fine artists, making up 47 percent of the field by 2005, which has helped to advance women artists in typically white male-dominated shows and exhibits in the last few years.
Women curated both the Tate and Whitney Biennials.
WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, a 2007 exhibit of 119 artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, represented the first international survey of feminist art from the 1970s. Organized and curated by Cornelia Butler, the retrospective shined a spotlight on a number of female artists never before recognized for their contributions or impact.
“[This exhibit] showed us feminist art is a hot topic here and abroad,” said Young. “Outside the US/British framework, you can’t say we are post-feminist. You have to ask, what do you do as a woman artist in Saudi Arabia?”
