NFT has received a lot of media attention, but experts agree that their influence will not stop at buying and selling digital works or tweets but also changing the way people exchange ideas forever.
Despite its promise to break the mold, the global NFT market is just a men's and old-fashioned industry like any other conventional art industry. Recent data shows that only 16% of NFT creators are women – a surprising gender disparity that reflects incompletely on women in today's NFT ecosystem.
According to a survey conducted by Art Tactics and published by Bloomberg, female artists account for only 5% of revenue in the NFT market. Meanwhile, male artists account for 77% of revenue (16% are by anonymous artists, and 2% are by groups of authors).
However, many NFT projects are trying to fix this. Rarible is one of them. Rarible prioritizes supporting women-led NFT projects.
Masha Vyazemskaya, Head of Communications at Rarible and Rebekah Keida, Chief Marketing Officer at XBTO spoke about this gender disparity in the NFT market.
According to Vyazemskaya, the tech sector has always been dominated by men, which creates "obstacles for many women who want to enter the NFT market."
She added: "As the industry grows, it is extremely important that we celebrate female artists and creators. We need to motivate and encourage their work and give them a greater opportunity to shape the future of the industry."
She said the challenges faced by female creators when they first entered the NFT field were rooted in the "larger tech industry." According to her, "the traditional tech industry is often interested in men's ambitions and successes, creating the myth that technology is only for men."
According to Vyazemskaya, awareness is an important first step to encouraging more women to enter the NFT industry. She said that, by honoring female innovators and the projects they undertake, we are setting a precedent for future generations of creators that the NFT field is "a community for women."
According to XBTO's Rebekah Keida, two important measures for women to be more and more involved in NFT and Web3 are to "create more cryptocurrency education opportunities for more people and create a sense of welcome."
To be honest, the industry is still nascent and on the rise, so no one is really "experts". We're all learning together. The more we promote a sense of welcome, the more the market will welcome more cryptocurrency users and women who look forward to participating."
Vyazemskaya advises any woman who is looking to develop a career in the NFT field to start interacting with creators and collectors as soon as possible.
According to her, the NFT community is one of the "most active supporters" communities, and there are many really worthwhile exchanges and interactions taking place on social networks and online marketplaces like Rarible.
On the other hand, Keida advises that when it's right to get started, just start. "Do your own research," she added. She thinks 1-1 exchanges on Twitter or Discord are worth it. The media often reports on NFT investment stories in one direction – either resounding success or disastrous failure. "But when you reach out to others and build personal connections, you realize that you can learn more than that."
