Barcelona cultural programme made up of only 32% works by women

A study carried out by the Barcelona Cultural Institute (ICB) has revealed that only 32% of the works making up the city’s cultural programme are done by women.

The report analysed 19,088 activities, 71% of the overall total, throughout the capital during the years 2016 and 2017. Within the different fields investigated, it was found that women dominated in the presentations of events in museums and exhibition centres, with a representation of 75%. The number of female soloists performing at festivals was 40%.

According to Barcelona’s Councillor for Feminism, the role of women is “improving” however there is still a long way to go. One of the areas with the least female presence is in concert halls where directors choose historical topics, where most authors are men.

Historical deficits

The cultural commissioner, Joan Subirats, believes that there are “historical deficits” that hinder equality. With regard to female soloists in concerts, he highlighted that representation increased from 27.3% in 2016 to 35.1% in 2017.

Subirats asserted that women are those who mostly engage in cultural activities, but these figures “are not represented in the direction” of cultural works and areas of responsibility. Therefore, he stated that the priority is to achieve “equilibrium” between the percentage of users and those that organize the cultural events.