Gender inequality and the digital arts: How do sexism and gender biases influence female digital artists.

Recently, people around the globe are marching against female discriminations with a focus on the Creative and Cultural Industry (CCI) and the STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. In light of the fact of being in the 21st century while acknowledging the importance of eliminating such inequalities, this study seeks to examine the possible existence of gender inequalities in a somewhat neglected sector, the digital arts field. Digital art constitutes a contemporary art practice and thus it is highly important to examine the enclosure of such injustice behaviours in this field. Hence, by answering the essential question: “Does gender inequality exists in the digital arts scene?”, the present research aims to add in the already existent literature on gender inequality both in the workplace and in the current art world, attempting also to raise awareness on this matter. By conducting a quantitative research, consisted of a combination of descriptive statistics and an online survey, the presence of female digital/ new media artists in well-known festivals devoted to digital arts is being examined. This research is placed under a theoretical framework pointing out to the existence of female discriminations in the CCI and the STEM, as well as the correlation of digital art with art and technology. The verified underrepresentation of female digital/ new media artists by the statistics along with the personal experiences gathered from the survey, are hinting to the existence of occupational sexism and gender biases in the digital arts field. The positive outcome of this study in relation to gender inequality is concerning. Further research should be conducted in the digital arts field in order to examine additional types of discrimination, in order to finger to precise sociological issues in an effort to recognize them and thus be able to overcome them. Gender inequality as all types of inequalities and discriminations should be at least occasional situations and not the main pattern in such times.