painting like a housewife : an inquiry into gender bias in professional art education
abstract
primary research method consisted of in-depth interviews with 10 female artists from thunder bay, northwestern ontario, canada. this thesis is an examination of the post-secondary
art educational experiences of female artists. the focus
of the thesis is an analysis of their perceptions regarding
the effect of gender on their art, their lives as artists,
and their education. in essence, it explores the synthesis
of artist and woman. such an exploration directs attention
to those virtually excluded from previous research.
in order to accomplish this, the primary research
method consisted of conducting in-depth interviews with 10
female artists from the thunder bay area. with regard to
these female artists i explored: their personal perception
of art education, their construction of professional
identity as artists, their integration of the role of
artist with other roles, as well as any perceived or real
barriers to creative work. to understand fully the
perceptions women artists have of their own professional
identity, it was necessary to incorporate other societal
roles held by the participants, and explore the resultant
juxtaposition.
a portion of this thesis is an autobiographical
investigation of my own journey as an artist designed to
integrate with and provide additional focus to the
investigation. this research contributes to the
understanding that there is a great deal to discover from
the standpoint of women, and also from personal reflection.
collections
- retrospective theses [1604]