Almost two-thirds of visual artists and craft artists in Canada are women, according to Statistics Canada data from the 2021census.
About 14,000 women identified as painters, sculptors and other visual artists, compared to 7,400 men. An additional 12,700 women identified as craft artists, compared to 6,900 men.
The figures come courtesy of an analysis by Hill Strategies Research, an Ontario-based consulting firm that reports on cultural trends.
The analysis notes a total of 202,900 artists in all disciplines, defined as those who spent more time at their art than any other occupation in May 2021. Overall, 109,100 were women, roughly 54 per cent. Looked at another way, that means 1.1 per cent of all women in the Canadian labour force were artists.
Women are most commonly found in dance, accounting for almost nine in ten dancers. Roughly six in 10 writers were female. And women account for about half of musicians.
Women in the government's data are defined as including cisgender women, transgender women, as well as some non-binary individuals.
Census data tends to undercount artists because many have day jobs, or multiple part-time gigs, to support themselves, and may be counted within another occupation depending on the amount of time they have to spend earning a living income, the analysis notes. The data may also be skewed by the pandemic, which has affected employment patterns and earnings for artists.
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Source: Hill Strategies Research
