Women, Art and Society

This acclaimed study challenges the assumption that great women artists are exceptions to the rule who 'transcended' their sex to produce major works of art.


While acknowledging the many women whose contributions to visual culture since the Middle Ages have often been neglected, Chadwick’s survey amounts to much more than an alternative canon of women artists: it re-examines the works themselves and the ways in which they have been perceived as marginal, often in direct reference to gender. In her discussion of feminism and its influence on such a reappraisal, the author also addresses the closely related issues of ethnicity, class, and sexuality.

This expanded edition is brought up to date in the light of the most recent developments in contemporary art. A new chapter considers how women’s art in the twenty-first century is characterized by a renewed focus on the personal and the intimate, alongside an interest in more global issues. Chadwick also discusses some of the ways recent women artists have revisited and at times subverted earlier feminist strategies.