The Politics of Gender in Arts and Culture

Call for Papers for the Special Issue of the Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy

Guest editors:

• Mathilde Provansal Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich mathilde.provansal soziologie.uni-muenchen de
• Sari Karttunen, Center for Cultural Policy Research Cupore, Helsinki sari.karttunen cupore fi

This special issue examines gender inequality and gender-based discrimination and violence in the cultural sector. Across many countries, artistic and cultural higher education has seen growing enrolment across diverse student populations but it has not translated into equal opportunities or working conditions in cultural and artistic labour markets. Individuals across the gender spectrum continue to encounter subtle, informal, and sometimes overt obstacles in artistic and cultural careers. The #MeToo movement brought heightened public and institutional attention to gender-based violence in training institutions and cultural organisations, prompting renewed scrutiny of professional norms and organisational cultures.

Gender inequality and gender-based violence in the arts and culture may be sustained by multi-level social mechanisms: institutional routines, organisational cultures, professional norms, gatekeeping practices, evaluation standards, and labour market structures. Despite measures introduced to address structural (equality action plans, training programmes, gender-sensitive funding criteria, internal reporting mechanisms, guidelines for safe work environments, anti-harassment codes of conduct, gender-focused networks, and monitoring tools), academic research remains scattered and often descriptive. Existing work tends to focus on individual institutions, national policy frameworks or specific artistic disciplines. Comparative research across nations and cultural fields is still scarce. Few studies focus on ways to address gender-based violence in the arts and culture. Little is known about how equality and anti-violence measures reshape organisational cultures, professional relations and artistic value systems—or the extent to which they challenge the longstanding structural foundations of gender inequality within cultural labour markets.

The proposed special issue aims to explore how gender inequality is confronted in different cultural and artistic fields, how policy ideas travel between contexts, how institutional actors negotiate demands for accountability, and how cultural workers experience transformations currently under way. Contributions that challenge assumptions about the novelty of the post-#MeToo moment are particular welcomed.

We invite submissions on themes relating to questions of gender in the arts and culture sector, including but not limited to:

• Conceptualisations of gender, equality, diversity and equity as they relate to cultural management and cultural policy and tensions that arise between artistic autonomy, equality, and cultural policy
• Internal policies of artistic training institutions and cultural organizations and measures for responding to gender-based discrimination, harassment, and violence
• Current debates on gender in the arts and culture sector
• Relationships between gender and labour precarity in the arts and culture sector
• Organisational responses to demands for institutional accountability in the wake of increased public scrutiny of gender-based misconduct, as well as leadership responsibilities for safe-work places

We welcome contributions in the form of traditional research articles, scholarly essays, and case studies. Please consult the submission guidelines for each format at: https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/CUP

Deadline for submissions: December 15, 2026

The peer-reviewed journal is published twice a year with a thematic section focusing on a special issue. Contributions should be clearly written, well-structured, novel and interesting for our audience. Submit original, unpublished manuscripts to be submitted via manuscriptcentral.