1st Edition

Gender Equality and the Cultural Economy Comparative Perspectives

By Helmut K. Anheier, Darinka Markovic Copyright 2025
    282 Pages 86 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    282 Pages 86 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The status of women in the creative and cultural industries remains precarious. This comparative analysis provides insights from seven key economies to help understand progress toward gender equality in culture and the arts and the broader cultural economy.

    With empirical and policy analysis spanning Europe and the US, the authors investigate the extent to which gender equality has entered the mainstream along dimensions of leadership, access and awards, pay and pension gaps, work-life balance, and the monitoring of gender equality. While many of the structural barriers have been erased, countries differ significantly in how much gender equality has been achieved in the creative economy, and how much female talent is lost and unrecognized.

    This book is essential reading for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners across the human and social sciences, especially those involved with arts management and the creative or cultural economy more broadly.

    1. Gender equality, art worlds, and the cultural economy: what are the issues? 2. The incomplete promise of egalité in France’s cultural economy 3. Is the “cultural nation” an equal one? Gender inequality in Germany 4. Heritage and tradition in Italy’s cultural economy: a roadblock to gender equality? 5. Poland: gender equality caught between two cultures 6. Sweden: the benefits of long-term commitment to gender mainstreaming 7. The United Kingdom’s approach to the cultural economy: leaving women behind? 8. United States: falling behind in gender equality 9. Gender equality in the cultural economy: lessons from the seven-country study

    Biography

    Helmut K Anheier is past President of and Professor of Sociology at the Hertie School, Germany, and member of the Luskin School of Public Affairs, UCLA.

    Darinka Markovic is expert in visual analytics and data analysis, contributes to various research projects focusing on international cultural cooperation and the cultural economy.