It is an unusual situation – and cause for celebration – that three women artists currently occupy three of London’s most prestigious museums: Tracey Emin at Tate Modern, Rose Wylie at the Royal Academy of Arts, and Beatriz González at the Barbican. In New York, there’s Carol Bove at the Guggenheim, Elizabeth Murray at the Museum of Modern Art, and Mabel Dwight at the Whitney Museum of American Art – a far cry from 1985 when the Guerrilla Girls formed to demonstrate about the underrepresentation of women in the city’s exhibitions.

So, what has changed? Put simply, more women are in leadership positions in museums than ever before, and they are expanding the field of vision. As the London gallerist Pilar Corrias puts it: ‘It is only natural that, with women at the helm, these institutions are making concerted efforts to address the disparity in works by women artists.’ Corrias, whose roster comprises three quarters women-identifying and non-binary artists, notes how this is having a knock-on effect on both institutional and private collecting.

‘Those in decision-making and taste-making roles determine what is exhibited, written about and acquired, so increased representation at that level has had a cumulative effect,’ she says. ‘As women artists have gained greater visibility, collectors have become more aware of the breadth and depth of work available to them. Greater institutional and commercial visibility creates confidence and confidence drives collecting.’

Female collectors, it seems, are particularly galvanized to support other women. According to the latest Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting, in 2024, High Net Worth women spent 46% more than their male peers. Past reports did not discover a correlation between whether women are more likely to buy work made by women, but this latest report does: On average, 49% of works in the collections of women are by female artists, compared to 40% in men’s collections. In women’s collections in the US this rose to 55% and in Japan to 54%.

Some women are intentional about supporting women artists and broadening the canon more generally. The Indian-born American collector Komal Shah, whose foundation just hosted the inaugural Making Their Mark Forum dedicated to celebrating women artists and gender equity in Washington D.C; Yan Du, who is based in London and Hong Kong; and Norway’s Monica Reitan have all built collections that prominently feature female artists. 

The Italian-born, London-based patron Valeria Napoleone was among the first to do so, having started collecting women artists 30 years ago. She notes how the art world has exponentially shifted since the 1980s when it felt less connected and more adversarial – though she points out that some of the structural inequalities to do with childcare persist. ‘There’s a whole mentality around child support that needs to be addressed in society at large, because that is still a huge issue for female artists,’ Napoleone says. ‘The market doesn’t trust women. It wants continuous production, and some women raise children, they slow down, they may stop for a while, and then come back. That really doesn’t agree with the market.’

Corrias thinks that women have often had to rely on one another out of necessity. ‘Building networks is a way of sharing information, resources, and opportunities that are not always readily accessible,’ she says. ‘That sense of solidarity tends to emerge from shared experience. When you face similar structural challenges, collaboration is both practical and empowering.’

More broadly, Corrias observes that the art world is beginning to value more networked and nurturing ways of working. ‘The market has traditionally been perceived as competitive and hierarchical, but increasingly there is recognition that community-building, mentorship, and collaboration create stronger, more sustainable ecosystems,’ she says.

Cofounded in 2016 by the art strategist Sigrid Kirk, the Association of Women in the Arts (AWITA) has long espoused a model that empowers other women. Kirk describes her approach as ‘matronage’ – a term used by the speaker, writer, and women’s advocate Hall W. Rockefeller. ‘Matronage is a supportive, nurturing, non-extractive model of engagement with artists,’ Kirk explains.

Referencing one of the key findings in the Survey of Global Collecting –  that women are likely to take more risks than men when it comes to collecting – Kirk agrees that women ‘tend to buy earlier, buy newer, and buy outside the canon.’ She describes female collectors as ‘supertasters’ who notice nuance sooner. ‘It’s less about fiscal risk and more about information risk,’ Kirk says. ‘Risk-taking might just be better signal reading in a changing world. Maybe women are noticing nuance sooner than men.’

The AWITA founder says the female collectors she knows tend to spend a lot more time visiting artists’ studios, connecting, and sharing. As she puts it: ‘Women transfer information between each other, they collaborate, they share. I think women use information differently, collect it differently. It’s a hugely positive thing.’ Last year AWITA launched a survey to uncover the realities of women’s roles, salaries, and career advancement opportunities in the art world in a bid to shape a data-driven path to equality in the arts. The second survey is currently being conducted.  

Looking ahead, many are hopeful that women artists will achieve parity in the next two to three decades. According to UBS’s 2025 Gender-Lens Investment Report, an estimated USD 32 trillion in global spending is managed by women and 75% of discretionary spending globally is expected to be controlled by them within five years. Women are also poised to become the primary beneficiaries of the Great Wealth Transfer over the next two decades. According to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2025, USD 83 trillion will be transferred over the next 20–25 years, with women benefiting from both intra- as well as inter-generational shifts as USD 9 trillion of this total transfers between spouses.

It stands to reason, then, that if women control a substantially larger share of global wealth, female artists will benefit from a deeper, more consistent market and institutional backing. Kirk suggests that women may also switch who they buy art from. ‘According to internal banking figures, around 70 to 75% of women switch private wealth banks when they inherit, mainly because banks are so male dominated,’ she says. ‘With the wealth transfer, they might also decide they are not going to buy the way they used to buy. That might mean using one of these new types of advisory services over Christie’s or reshaping their portfolio. There’s going to be some sort of recalibration.’

Amid the optimism, Corrias sounds a note of caution. As she observes, there remains ‘a perception gap between the advances that have been made and the long way the art world still has to go to achieve anything resembling equity.’

While more and more institutions boast solo shows by women, it is striking to consider that it was only in 2023 that the Royal Academy staged its first solo exhibition in its 255-year history by a woman in its principal galleries, devoted to Marina Abramović. And, it is only recently that many of the world’s leading art institutions are for the first time in their histories being led by women. Just two years ago, Victoria Siddall became the first female director of the National Portrait Gallery in London since it opened in 1856; while Maria Balshaw became the first female director of Tate when she was appointed in 2017, 120 years after the museum opened.

And, crucially, the pay gap is still yawning. As Napoleone says, ‘If you compare female and male artists of the same generation, creating the same type of art, their prices are totally different. It takes a while for the market to catch up, but the institution is where change needs to happen. It’s a long journey, but we are on the right path.’