Is There Really a Gender Gap That Disfavors Female Painters? An Experimental Study in Spain

Several authors have highlighted the fact that the works of female artists obtain significantly lower prices than those of their male counterparts. Hence the purpose of this chapter is to check whether this gender gap is also present in others kind of arts—more specifically, painting—and, if so, to contrast whether can be classified as a case of intrinsic price discrimination against women. In order to contrast for hypothesis, we have designed an experiment in which a representative sample of the Spanish population is presented a series of images of paintings which we ascribe alternatively to male and female painters (what is eased by the fact that the Spanish language has different male/female declinations for the noun “painter”) asking them to specify which price they would be willing to pay for them. The sample size allows for a 95% confidence and the results will be compared by gender, age, income level, and being (or not) an arts professional. It also considers different painting styles as to avoid any possible a priori bias. The questions are formulated in such way as to not make it evident for the participant that the variable we are manipulating if the artist’s gender. Our results show that there is not a price discrimination against female painter per se, but there in those cases where statistically significant differences are detected (favoring either men or women) this might be explained the gender of the buyer. Our findings have fundamental implications for the art markets as they show that not only should more artworks by female artists be exhibited in fairs and exhibitions, but also that, in order to avoid the intrinsic price discrimination, the most effective mean might be to promote art collection by women.