Race- and gender-based under-representation of creative contributors: art, fashion, film, and music

Chad M. Topaz (), Jude Higdon, Avriel Epps-Darling, Ethan Siau, Harper Kerkhoff, Shivani Mendiratta and Eric Young
Additional contact information
Chad M. Topaz: Institute for the Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity
Jude Higdon: Institute for the Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity
Avriel Epps-Darling: Harvard University
Ethan Siau: Institute for the Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity
Harper Kerkhoff: Institute for the Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity
Shivani Mendiratta: Institute for the Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity
Eric Young: Institute for the Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity

Palgrave Communications, 2022, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Motivated by the well-established benefits to society of artistic creation and of demographic diversity, we investigate the gender and racial/ethnic composition of influential contributors to four creative domains. Women make up 51% of the U.S. population but are underrepresented at influential levels of contemporary art (28%), high fashion (45%), box office film (27%), and popular music (17%). Marginalized racial/ethnic groups make up 39% of the U.S. population yet comprise approximately half that figure in contemporary art (22%), high fashion (22%), and box office film (19%). Black musical artists have higher representation (48%), though higher representation does not equate with equity and inclusion. As for intersecting identities, white men are overrepresented in all four domains by factors ranging from 1.4 to 2 as compared to the U.S. population, and most other gender-racial/ethnic groups are further minoritized. Our study is the first comprehensive, comparative, empirical look at intersecting identities across creative fields. The exclusion of marginalized individuals, including those who are women, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black, Latinx, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, is severe. The lack of self-expressed demographic data is a challenge, as is the erasure of certain identity groups from the American Community Survey, including agender, gender noncomforming, nonbinary, and transgender individuals. These are challenges that, if addressed, would enhance our collective understanding of diversity in creative fields.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-022-01239-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:9:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-022-01239-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-022-01239-9

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().