RESPONSE # 9: WHITE WALLS, GLASS CEILING;

Thesis:
"And yet despite the outward appearance of fair-mindedness, in some ways women remain disadvantaged as artists" (109).
Regardless of just physicality's of being fair like just being talented or great, women still have  some disadvantages in their successes as artists.

1)"If this fact entails even a slight bias in terms of which gender gets taken seriously, it might seriously affect who sells and thereby which artists go on to glory"(110). The fact that there is a wealth gap between male and female artists as well as a predominately male market, affects how the said wealth is distributed. This may affect the artist in question and their future.


2) "For women, the key kink in the system, however, seems to occur between art school--where they are generally through to be at parity, if not in the majority--an initial contact with the system of gallery representation, where the number plummets. It seems, then, that a lot rides on understanding the mechanisms by which artists come to show at a gallery"(111).
The  disadvantages start some place between art school and when the women start to be represented by the gallery. At that point, you see that the number of women being represented drop due to their networks and connections to get to be represented. It's the efforts and hoops they have to jump through to be noticed.


3)"In an age of escalating inequality, just because women are more visible than ever before in leadership roles does not meant that the lives of the great masses of women are necessarily better" (113). The population of women are gaining status and newer opportunities, but that does not mean that in this day and age that discrimination in other forms will be gone and nor will the lives of women improve.

There still is a glass ceiling present in the gallery, but it's not completely closed off. More like an open sky light where women do have the same, or close to the same opportunities, but the grey area of how to achieve status or representation is still iffy. It affects me as an art student through the next steps after graduation. It's the age old scenario of, "Have I done enough to get me to where I want to be?" and "What do I do now and how do I get to where I want to go?" I may have the same opportunities as other people, but biases and personal discrimination may get in the way.