#ArtsEquity: It’s More Than Just a Pay Gap!

#PayEquityintheArts: It’s More Than Just a Pay Gap!

By Campaign Coordinator Marion Kleinschmidt

Did you know that in the USA, women typically make 84 cents to the dollar of male white workers in a comparable job? (See aauw.org) This is what we call an unacceptable pay gap! This gap applies across the US arts industry, where women often struggle to even score lesser-paid work opportunities, not to mention leadership positions.

This is one of the reasons why Athena Project exists and why we are running this #PayEquityintheArts campaign, investigating the roots of the problem and opening up a conversation about what we all can do to change things up.

In this and upcoming entries, we share surprising insights from our 2024 #PayEquityintheArts Survey: Athena artists were asked to anonymously share the economic circumstances within which they produce art. While the sample group is relatively small (under 50 samples), responses are surprisingly cohesive, allowing us to infer that the survey’s numeric results are applicable for a substantially larger group with a margin of error below 3%.

About me: As someone who studied politics and the arts under the college microscope, it’s pretty mindblowing to effect change where the two intersect. I’ve been volunteering with Athena’s social media team since April 2024 and love meeting and amplifying women and nonbinary artists. Especially because Metro Denver has such a thriving live music scene. I identify as a white, female immigrant with a Greencard who learns through her blunders, so please call me out with constructive feedback anytime!

But wait – what exactly is #PayEquityintheArts?

It’s the ideal of fair and equal compensation of artists and arts workers, regardless of gender, race or other identity markers.

Obviously, this is not currently a reality, even though we are seeing more efforts in that direction and some improvement. According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), women working full time in the U.S. make 84% of what men do, with ethnicity further widening the pay gap:

• • Latinas make 57 cents on the dollar.
  •  Native women make 59 cents on the dollar.
  • Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) women make 65 cents on the dollar.
  •  Black women make 69 cents on the dollar.
  • Asian women make 99 cents on the dollar.
    (See Fast Facts: The Gender Pay Gap – AAUW)

But pay inequality is by far not the only dimension of the problem.

Athena Project’s Founder and Executive Producer, Angela Astle, famously initiated this organization in 2012 when she was floored by how few plays by women playwrights get staged in the USA. Three years later, in 2015, it was still only one fifth of all plays – according to “The Count” by Julia Jordan and Marsha Norman. This is particularly shocking considering that up to 50% of any season’s top-selling Broadway plays are written by women (see American Theatre statistics). We at Athena believe that such underrepresentation on the national level – as compared to Broadway – results from the many barriers emerging women and nonbinary playwrights face in terms of getting their work seen, supported, and produced in the first place

It boils down to this: As an unknown woman playwright, you have to get your play staged before you can even worry about pay equity!

In this blog series, I invite you to consider four significant dimensions of #PayEquityintheArts:

Pay Disparities: Women in the arts often are offered and feel obliged to accept significantly lower performance fees, wages and commissions than their male counterparts. Also affected are nonbinary artists, POC and artists with disabilities.

Systemic Barriers: Unconscious biases, discriminatory hiring practices and underrepresentation in leadership roles. This means all the mechanisms at play when decisions are made about whose art gets seen (and paid for) and whose doesn’t.

Consumer Choice: What art we buy, go see and “like” online plays a crucial role in determining which artists can thrive and receive support in the industry. These consumer choices reinforce the biased preferences of art promoters and are fueled by (mis)conceptions regarding “worthy art”.

Impact on Diversity: The variety and vitality of cultural offerings in any location depend on adequate representation of women and other marginalized identities within arts organizations and their wider network of artists.

What is Athena Project doing to address all this?

Seeing the problem and shouting it out is not enough. Athena’s mission is to turn the dial towards making sure that more women and other underrepresented artists are seen and heard. Anyone who’s ever been to an Athena artBURST knows how amazing that can feel.

By “underrepresented” we mean those who identify as women, nonbinary, trans or otherwise as gender-nonconforming as well as artists of color and artists with disabilities. We amplify them because their gifts are amazing!

So, who are these artists?

Many times a year, Athena publishes calls for submissions for pop-up performances and other paid arts opportunities, inviting women, trans and nonbinary artists to apply with their work samples. To serve unique communities, Athena prioritizes artists who actually come from such a community or reflect its experiences in their work. Athena artists straddle a vast age range, some have been performing with Athena for many years, some are just starting out in their careers. All are uniquely talented and beloved by their audiences. When a new call for submission comes out, you will find it HERE.

We are proud to say that by now, our pool of artists is one of the most diverse you might find in the Denver Metro area and beyond. But we know we always have much growing and learning to do, especially in terms of attracting board members, staff and volunteers who reflect the diversity we wish to create. Are you feeling called? We’d love to hear from you HERE.

And what do the artists say about it all?

And while our artBURSTS and other commissions are making a difference all over the Denver Metro area, one thing’s for sure: tackling pay inequity is more complicated than that. It trickles down to almost all aspects of the creative process and landscape. Which is why Athena is active in many more equity-related areas – from offering accessible and free workshops to young girls and nonbinary youth to amplifying women and nonbinary playwrights.

If you are a professional artist, we would still love you to take the #PayEquityintheArts survey HERE. Please email any feedback to the survey, the campaign or this post to Campaign Coordinator, Marion at [email protected].

Thanks so much for reading along. Changing our perspective already changes the world!