In a world where some countries appear to be going backwards when it comes to women’s
rights, it sadly seems clear that International Women’s Day is still desperately needed –
giving a focus to areas where women are still oppressed and helping to start implementing
change. When a supposedly first world country is trying to control what women can do with
their bodies and regimes all over the world prevent women from working, going out or even
being seen, it’s obvious that there is still a huge discrepancy between the sexes.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that huge strides have been made in many areas. But the
overwhelmingly patriarchal society we still live in means that these discrepancies can trickle
down into day to day working and personal lives. I’ve worked in the photography industry
for 25 years and, whilst there have been many improvements, there’s still work to be done.
Women only make up 15% of professional photographers, despite making up 70% of
photography graduates. Why is this? Well, there seems to be a misconception still that
photography is a man’s game, with this being particularly true in certain genres. And,
looking at the numbers, it’s obvious that photography is still a male-dominated industry.
These days I tend to spend more time writing than taking pictures but even in the early days
I was involved in photography journalism. It was quite an eye opener to realise how few
female journalists there are in the photography industry, although this is improving. When I
started out, I was one of maybe two or three female photography journalists in the country.
Now, thankfully, there are many talented and successful women writing about the industry,
but it feels like we are a drop in the ocean compared to men. And the same, of course, is
true of photography itself. There are so many talented female photographers out there,
many of whom I spend a lot of time championing and writing about. But so many don’t
pursue a career in photography because it can still be hard to be taken seriously.
This isn’t always helped by brands and companies either. Let’s look at advertising as a small
example – there are so many campaigns and adverts for camera kits that don’t feature a
single woman using the kit or, if there is a woman, she’s the model in front of the camera.
The marketing around photography hasn’t necessarily caught up with the idea of female
photographers. Of course, having said that, there are plenty of companies that are
championing women in front of the camera, and I do think that the industry is starting to
catch up in this respect.
Gender bias also plays a part when it comes to the design of photographic kit. Nearly
everything in photography is designed to fit a man’s hand span and a man’s body. It’s only a
happy accident of design that mirrorless cameras tend to suit women’s hands. The cynic in
me doesn’t believe for one second that this was a factor in their original layout. I’ve lost
count of the number of times I’ve seen women asking for recommendations for camera
bags or straps that take our busts into account or querying which equipment they’ll be able
to use with smaller hands. Hats off to the companies and brands who are thinking about these things – it is gradually becoming much easier to find kit that we can actually use with ease.
I think that there’s still an aspect of women having to prove their worth in the photographic
industry. A man can turn up with a camera and everyone will automatically assume he’s the
photographer and that he knows what he’s doing. But even in 2025, people can still be
surprised to see a female photographer and there is a slight assumption that we might not
know what we’re doing. And women can also be their own worst enemy – I think that
imposter syndrome is far more prevalent amongst women than men.
There’s a risk when we look at the gulf between men and women in the photography
industry that an article like this can end up feeling negative. So, I want to stress that I do see
positive changes happening, as I’ve outlined above. At the risk of sounding like the middle-
aged woman I am, I see the younger generation normalising female photographers far more
and I do truly believe that the divide is getting smaller. Let’s keep working towards a society
where people are judged on the images they produce and not what sex they are.