How do distinctions of gender Manifest in art and design education and the Fine art world

This dissertation investigates the gender inequities that still exist in art education and the art establishment. I examine the damaging consequences of society’s dismissive and negative stereotyping of female artist/teachers in relation to their male counterparts. Furthermore, I explore how this impacts on the perceptions female artist/teachers have of themselves and subsequently, the potentially limiting consequences this has on their career prospects. Through the implementation of a feminist analytical autoethnographic investigation, the study is divided into two key components; the literature that explores the sociological, historical and cultural theory that outlines the reasons for the gender inequities in art and design education and the art establishment. Then following on from this is the discussion and interpretation of the art production; using the medium of film montage, through metaphor, composition sound and textual analysis, I explore how to better understand my position as a female artist educator. The findings of this examination, serve to highlight and clarify how the proximity of historically embedded canons from the Enlightenment era are a corollary to those experienced in art education and the art institution today. They also consider the damaging implications of gendering art and design and as a consequence, the importance for change within art education and the art establishment with a suggestion of how these can start to be implemented. I also hope through the nature of arts based research that it will provoke fresh conversations and new understanding of how to find strategies to oppose these prevailing gender inequities