Are Women in the Arts Facing a Career Exit Crisis?

“The art world is a club. The gap just continues to get bigger,” says Sigrid Kirk, co-founder and CEO of the Association of Women in the Arts (AWITA).

Kirk is speaking ahead of the publication of an annual report co-authored by AWITA and artnet and released today, which exposes the barriers women face across the arts.

“Women are very visible in the art world. We make up 75% of the cultural workforce in the visual arts, yet much of that is invisible labour,” says Kirk.

After the 2025 survey exposed disparities in leadership and pay, the 2026 report, titled Hardwiring Change II: Buying Back Time and based on more than 2,000 respondents, explores what it takes to build a sustainable career in the sector.

Millennial women face highest risk of exiting the arts

The findings are sobering. The report found that 48.3% of respondents aged 25 to 34, and 50.6% of those aged 35 to 44, are considering leaving the arts within the next five years.

This sentiment is most pronounced in the mid-career bracket, when many women are starting families. “That group is the next leadership pipeline. If we are losing them, we are facing a severe career exit crisis,” says Kirk. “Fair pay, burnout and structural bias are the three markers coming out most strongly.”

Alexandra Steinacker-Clark, founder of the All About Art podcast and co-founder of AWITA’s NextGen platform, sees the findings filtering down to younger arts professionals, who are weighing future barriers around pay, care, class and AI before their careers have fully begun.

For those in their twenties, care responsibilities are already shaping future decisions. “A lot of the report looks at millennial experiences,” she says. “But what we’re also seeing is how those same issues are trickling down to the next generation of arts professionals, Zillennials and Gen Z.”

Poor pay is the artworld’s most urgent pressure point

“This idea that passion can feed you is nonsense. If you’re not paid, how do you value yourself?” asks Kirk. She sees the contradiction reflected in her own work as founder of the non-profit organisation AWITA: “There is no small irony in campaigning for pay equity and transparency while being unpaid myself.”

Renumeration emerges as the report’s most urgent pressure point: 71.5% of respondents cited insufficient pay, while 62.9% reported anxiety around wider financial constraints. That crisis is concretised by Sarah, a former photographer and artist, who mentions the “cost of living in the area, no overtime and no benefits.” She adds: “Financially, I cannot grow my personal life by continuing my professional life in this capacity.”

Workload is another driver of career exits from the arts. The report found 48% of women in full-time roles spend more than half their working time on administrative or logistical tasks. Mothers aged 23 to 34 appear particularly vulnerable: 64.3% are considering leaving, the highest risk identified in the report. Among respondents without children aged 35 to 44, the figure remains high at 57.6%. Across the sector, the highest projected exit rates appear in non-profit organisations, at 53.3%, followed by the commercial art market at 49.2%.

Structural barriers linked to gender, race and class

Among women aged 35 to 54, around 76% have faced structural barriers linked to gender, race and class. Structural gender bias remains the top reason, at 82.5%.

Although women in leadership can help shift these dynamics, the report details how outdated structures continue to resist substantial change. In Switzerland, France and Italy, “the classic and archaic pyramid structures, where things have been done the same way for decades, persist,” says Kirk.

By contrast, in parts of the Global South, including the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Kirk sees “younger, more lateral models and extraordinary female leadership.”

Touria El Glaoui, founder of the 1-54 art fair, echoes this point: “Diversity is not a box to tick; it shapes how we think, decide and engage.” For El Glaoui, the challenge is retention as much as representation: “The work is not only to represent and recruit diverse talent, but to create environments where people can grow into leadership and help shape decision-making from the inside.”

Alongside gender bias, the report cites respondents facing barriers due to class at 39.6%, care responsibilities at 32.8%, and race at 25.2%. Kirk acknowledges the survey’s limitations: “We have to be very frank that the majority of our respondents are white,” she says. Still, the intersectional figures are stark: women of colour were more likely to report structural barriers at 80%, while 89.3% of Black women said they had faced such barriers. For Black and Asian women, race is the only category to surpass gender as the primary barrier.

Art workers in the age of AI

“The report asks whether AI helps arts workers buy back time or simply creates more work,” Kirk says. Commercial organisations, including auction houses and galleries, are adopting it at the fastest rate, while independent visual arts workers and micro businesses fall behind. Close to 80% of commercial sector respondents use AI, compared with around 30 to 40% among smaller operators. “That creates an inequality in who has access to AI and who is able to use it well,” says Kirk.

Yet while almost two thirds of art workers use AI overall, guidance has not kept pace: 67.3% of users say they have received no formal or professional training from their employer. While 57.2% of respondents found AI most useful for administrative tasks, creative integrity, misinformation and manipulation remain the most prevalent concerns among users.

Urgent changes demanded

Unfeasible workloads and lack of institutional support are leading mid-career women to consider work outside the arts. The report calls for structural change: fair pay and job security, career advancement and greater transparency and mentorship. “Salary bands are not enough if there is no transparency about where people sit within them,” says Kirk. “In many organisations, men are at the top of those bands and women at the bottom.” More female, intersectional authority is needed, “leadership that understands care, community, research, education, emotional labour and international networks.” Kirk concludes: “It would be a tragedy to make it impossible for these women to continue.”