Happy International Women’s Day!
Today, on the 50th anniversary of International Women’s Day, Sheila celebrates the important and vital contribution Australia’s women artists make to shaping our culture.
The official United Nations theme for International Women’s Day 2025 is For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment, a theme that is timely and significant as we witness DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs internationally under pressure or being actively rolled back, and the arts being increasingly used as a political football both at home and abroad. As Jess Scully, former deputy lord mayor of Sydney, observed in her piece “Who Stands for the Arts” (Kill Your Darlings, 27 February 2025), ‘Infringing on the independence of culture and storytelling may seem trivial compared with a slashing of trans rights, a dismantling of the public service, a far-right infiltration of the White House and a rise of oligarchic influence. But time and again the arts are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to the erosion of democratic norms and the narrowing of pluralism and inclusion into centralised, hegemonic narratives.’
IWD is a day to recognise how far we’ve come towards gender equality and, also, how far we have left to go.
As Creative Australia’s “Artists as Workers” study of 2024 showed, working artists earn an average income of $54,500 a year; 26 per cent below the national average. However, while women now outnumber men roughly two to one across almost all artistic occupations, they continue to earn 19 per cent less on average than men. The annual average income based on creative work alone is $23,200. And, as the important work of Countess revealed in their 2022 report (released in April 2024), across the visual arts sector, gender representation has plateaued or experienced a backward slide since the 2018 Report, which was published in 2019.
Sheila’s raison d’etre is to support Australia’s women artists every day of the year, not just on IWD. But today, a big shout out to you, for your commitment and achievements, and for everything you do to make our world a better place.
Banner image: Dorothy Braund, Barbara Brash, 1967 c. Courtesy the artist’s estate.
Image: Elaine Coghlan, Sports Girl c1930s, oil on board, 22 x 17 cm. Into the Light Collection.
Please help Sheila to advocate for and support our women artists.
