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

This study investigates gender and racial/ethnic representation of influential contributors in four creative domains: contemporary art, high fashion, film, and popular music. Women are significantly underrepresented across all four, while marginalized racial/ethnic groups are similarly underrepresented, except for Black musicians who show higher, though not equitable, representation. White men are overrepresented in all domains. The study highlights the severe exclusion of marginalized individuals and underscores the need for more self-reported demographic data to improve understanding of diversity in these fields.

Chad M. Topaz, Jude Higdon, Avriel Epps-Darling, Ethan Siau, Harper Kerkhoff, Shivani Mendiratta, Eric Young