Has society told you that girls can do this, but girls can’t do that? Math is not for girls, chess is not for girls, and the top level of academia is mostly males. It is embedded in some of our citizens’ subconscious that we have set gender roles.

The level of gender roles varies throughout the world. In some areas women have more rights than others. In some areas, they have no rights. Low self-esteem and gender segregation is something that is deeply embedded in some cultures.

A woman looks at an NFT by Mad Dog Jones, Photo - AFP

Thanks to social media, and streaming media in the form of podcasts and YouTube, people have bigger platforms to communicate their messages. Women were able to connect with each other on common causes more so than ever before. Subjects that were normally not discussed were getting the spotlight and some taboos were getting dispelled. It started to feel as if we were making some progress.

Then another paradigm shift started to happen, the transition from Web2 to Web3. During the Web2 boom, people were able to connect, but there was always a middle person, someone taking a cut from advertising, aggregating information on their users and the connection between people started to feel not as authentic.

In comes Web3 and we are starting to experience a peer-to-peer economy. Artists of all styles and backgrounds can now sell their art direct to consumers. The NFT space in particular became quite the hot commodity. Did it seem like during the transition from Web2 to Web3 that women got lost in the mix?

There has been a barrier for a long time in the world of tech between men and women, as in some other industries. But the Crypto Bro Culture is strong. Is it because they got here first and is this a barrier that can be broken?

By the numbers

It is not just the digital art world. A data analysis of major US art museums found that their collections were 87% male. This is an age-old art form too.

There's an apparent gender gap between the number of men compared to the number of women in crypto. Male creators represent 77% of NFT art sales, while only 5% go to women creators.

“The study, conducted by a research agency called Art Tactic and reported by Bloomberg, claims at least 77% of the money generated by NFT art sales over the past 21 months went to male artists, with just 5% going to female artists. “

Despite the metaverse being touted as an inclusive and diverse space, the NFT market has been dominated by the likes of the US artist Beeple (aka Mike Winkelman), Pak and Canadian-born Mad Dog Jones (the trio take the top three spots).

“Everydays - The First 5000 Days" by Beeple

While Pak’s nationality, gender and age remain undisclosed, the only known woman to make it into the top ten NFT artists is the musician Grimes, whose sales total $8.9m to date, compared with Winkelman’s $50.8m. Overall, male artists account for 77% of all primary and secondary sales, at $258.3m.

The highest selling woman artist in NFTs is currently IX Shells aka Itzel Yard. Whose work “Dreaming at Dusk” sold for 500 ETH or ~ $2 million. The most well-known female NFT artist must be Yam Karkai of World of Women. Her work, Woman #5672, went for £567,000 at Christie’s London Evening Sale earlier this year.

“Dreaming at Dusk” by Itzel Yard

Women account for just 16% of the NFT art market, according to a report published by the research firm ArtTactic, which based its findings on primary and secondary market sales on Nifty Gateway over the past couple of years.

In 32 countries across the world, including India, Egypt and Nigeria, men are 50% more likely to have access to the internet. In those countries, a third of women were connected to the internet compared with almost half of men. The digital gender gap has barely improved since 2011, dropping just half a percentage point from 30.9% to 30.4%. Globally, men are 21% more likely to be online than women, rising to 52% in the least developed countries, according to a report conducted by the World Wide Web Foundation in 2021.

Women in certain parts of the world have a hard time getting internet access, which is a problem if you have dreams of making a career online, where there are plenty of opportunities. New opportunities are popping up left and right in the digital world and gasoline has been poured on that fire since the introduction of crypto and especially lately, NFTs. A space filled with mostly men, but is that tide shifting?

Ever heard of Seneca?

Many may not know Seneca by name, but they do know some of her work. A project that took the NFT world by storm was named Bored Ape Yacht Club. The Bored Ape Yacht Club has almost become a household name, especially for those who are NFT savvy.

“Bored Ape Yacht Club” by Seneca

Seneca does not get a lot of press. In a Rolling Stone from January of this year

To be clear, Seneca was not the project’s sole illustrator. “I am the lead artist behind the original collection,” she says. The ape body itself, she adds, is “exactly line-for-line” her drawing. Other production artists — “Thomas Dagley, Migwashere, and a couple who chose to remain anonymous,” according to Gargamel — handled the traits and environment. However, she points out, she did develop some of the major traits, like the grinning mouth, the popping eyes, and the beanie.

“Not of ton of people know that I did these drawings, which is terrible for an artist,” she says. Word of mouth has been growing, though, and she hopes that will help her find more collaborations.

While she’s not able to discuss financial specifics, her compensation, she says, “was definitely not ideal.” However, she insists, she’s grateful for the experience and the entryway to a realm she can no longer imagine living without.

In the meantime, she’s focusing on her solo work. In December, Seneca dropped her debut series of NFTs under her own name as part of a collection called Iconoclast at Miami’s Art Basel. She is currently working on follow up series.

Women NFT Projects making a mark

The world of NFTs took off last year and it did not take too long for women to make their mark in the space. Some of these projects have a big following among female celebrities, most of them are about more than just art, they are about female empowerment, encouraging diversity, education, taking on charitable causes and making a difference in society. It is refreshing to see a movement in the NFT space that aspires to inspire.

Here are some of the top projects and collections:

World of Women

WoW’s 2022 collection earned Yam Karkai USD 40 million within two weeks of its release. Back in mid-October, Reese Witherspoon became the first from Hollywood to change her Twitter profile picture to a blonde-haired, blue-skinned WoW avatar, but the stampede arrived in January.

In the first few days of the new year, both Shonda Rhimes and Eva Longoria purchased and paraded their shiny new NFTs; so did beauty influencer and entrepreneur Huda Kattan, who has 50 million followers just on Instagram, where her profile picture is a WoW avatar.

World of Women - Yam Karkai

WoW has also been doing monthly “ArtDrops” - airdropping pieces by lesser-known, emerging crypto artists from around the world, many of whom are women, into members’ virtual wallets. The goal, presumably, is to get closer and closer to flooding the playing field with fresh faces, one drop at a time.

World of Women is not only making good use of utility NFTs and minting high end NFTs, they are getting behind some good causes as well. These include:

• She’s the first: an organization that supports local solutions to educate and empower girls across 26 countries.
• Code to inspire: a coding school for women in Afghanistan.
• La maison des femmes: supports women victims of domestic abuse.
  

Women Rise

The NFT collection was created by the 26-year-old artist, author, and activist @Maliha_z_art who has been focusing on social justice, women's rights, gender equality, and girls' education.

Known as the ‘NFT Queen’ in the crypto space, Mahila Abidi is a global artist, activist, author and NFT creator. She believes the NFT industry will give artists a new space to showcase their collections. She is determined to bring over 100,000 girls and women to the NFT world by the end of 2022.

Women Rise - Mahila Abidi

Boss Beauties

Lisa Mayer, the founder and CEO of Boss Beauties said she is using her business selling NFTs as a vehicle to empower young women. The motto and inspiration behind this trending NFT project is, "A woman can be anything she wants."

NFT Artwork - Boss Beauties

Associated with My Social Canvas, a charitable foundation that has been funding internships and scholarships for women and building a community of Gen Z change-makers for the past decade, Boss Beauties is the epitome of female empowerment in the NFT space. Sold out in just an hour, Boss Beauties also became the inaugural NFT collection to be featured in the New York Stock Exchange.

Remarkable Women

The Remarkable Women NFT collection by Rachel Winter is a celebration and ode to all women inspired by the perspectives of fashion, feminism, and cultural diversity. The collection showcases powerful messages of hope, inspiration, and affirmation in 15 languages.

Remarkable Women NFT collection by Rachel Winter

Guided by a deep sense of purpose and meaning, Remarkable Women’s mission is to uplift and empower women by focusing on inclusion and representation. 10% of their first drop proceeds (about $50,000) were dedicated to their strategic partner the Fund for Women’s Equality. 10% of all secondary sales will be put into the Remarkable Women’s Impact Fund with proceeds decided and voted upon by their community members towards causes dedicated to women, justice, equality, and inclusion globally.

Crypto Chicks

Through her human-inspired NFT art, Ms Polly looks forward to encouraging gender and beauty diversity in the real and virtual worlds.

an NFT Collection About Women - Crypto.Chicks

Through Crypto Chick’s Women Artist Fund, they dedicate a minimum 5 ETH each quarter to buy unique pieces from up and coming talent. They showcase their art and stories within the community and through their public, media channels, along with raffling the pieces to community members. They also have a launchpad for women designers, creatives, and small retail businesses to develop the skill sets necessary to thrive in the web3 ecosystem and up level their businesses.

Women and Weapons

NFT collection that features in the list includes 10,000 diverse, beautiful, and badass women NFTs by artist Sara Baumann. The powerful art collection was first released in 2021. The main purpose was to speak to the dialectic nature between a weapon's power versus a woman's power and the femininity of a woman versus the “masculinity” of a weapon and create a conversation. If this image makes you uncomfortable, why does it make you uncomfortable? But James Bond holding the weapon doesn't? The weapons symbolize the weapons that women carry in their day-to-day.

Sara aims to make a difference in society and raise money for charity. She commits to donating 5 percent of the profits to Malala Fund Charity.**

Sad Girls Bar

“I think it takes courage to show that you’re vulnerable. It is really about the willingness to truly be ourselves. And especially in web3 people shouldn’t be afraid to express how they really feel.”

- Glam Beckett Tweet 4/21/22

Sad Girls Bar — NFT Collection

Proceed of sales supports “Women Side by Side” — a program of peer support for women delivered by Mind and Agenda, the alliance for women and girls at risk. We take emotions seriously and sometimes being sad or upset is OK, but conditions after emotional burnouts, self-harm episodes, or suicide thoughts often need a helping hand, support, and all attention.

Flower Girls

The Flower Girls counts Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Eva Longoria, Brie Larson, America Ferrera, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jimmy Connors, Brooklyn Beckham and TIME President Keith Grossman as collectors and community members.

The Flower Girls - Collection

The Flower Girls has passed $15 million in sales. The project donated 20% of primary and secondary sales to children’s charities and 5% of primary and secondary sales to collect children’s NFT art. The project donated over $400,000 to children’s charities in February.

Long Neck Ladies

The founder, leader, and artist of this NFT project is an inspirational 13-year-old girl named Nyla Hayes, who started drawing at age four and created her first NFT at the age of nine.

Last year Nyla created 1000 unique pieces in the style of Long Neckie Ladies and is based on TIME’s Women of the Year franchise.

Long Neck Ladies - Nyla Hayes

The 100 women featured in this drop include: Coco Chanel, Amelia Earhart, Anna May Wong, Eva Perón, Frida Kahlo, Billie Holiday, China Machado, Dolores Huerta, Gloria Steinem, Indira Gandhi, Tu Youyou, Diana, Princess of Wales, Madonna, Toni Morrison, Michelle Obama, Malala Yousafzai, Pussy Riot, and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. You can find the full list of women featured here.

A couple of female-led projects making moves recently:

My BFF

It is a new community entirely for women and non-binary people who want to get the NFT or cryptocurrency basics right. MyBFF is a learning-based initiative that also offers the latest industry news and reward systems for participation.

My BFF - NFT Artwork

There are many celebrities and artists who are a part of the founding team, such as Mila Kunis, Tyra Banks and Gwyneth Paltrow. __MyBFF__is co-founded by Brit Morin and Jaime Schmidt. Even key VC investors such as Katie Stanton, founder and general partner at Moxxie Ventures, and Sarah Guo, venture capitalist and company-builder at Greylock, are a part of the collaboration.

GroupHug

Founded by Randi Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg’s sister, GroupHug is ‘a creator accelerator that offers funding and mentorship’ from her and other technology and art industry leaders.

GroupHug - NFT Artwork

GroupHug also promotes brand partnerships and gives PR exposure and institutional fundraising training among other things. HUG's mission of supporting diverse creators. Artist-in-residence program, each of our 1/1 artists are funded with a 4-5 digit grant to support their efforts in taking their artistic pursuit to the next level. They have a no-code database of over 300 projects and artists, with an emphasis on women and diverse creators/founders.

GroupHug allows users to search and filter projects by founder attributes (Asian-founded, LBGTQIA-founded, etc) as well as mission/cause. They are looking to help women-led projects or startups with at least one female artist or co-founder. Their Hug Hub allows for creators to find other creators to collaborate with and get discovered by collectors looking for projects or art like yours.

Six Degrees of Gary Vanyerchuck

Anybody who is in the NFT Space knows who Gary Vee is, Chances are that you may have found out about NFTs from Gary Vayerchuck’s new life mission. He is all-in with NFTs and loves to give back to the community as well as other creators. A number of popular female artists got their break due to Gary Vee. Gary is very supportive of a lot of women getting into Web 3, educating them, making sure that they have the opportunity to have high visibility roles.

One needs not to look too far from Gary to see this impact he has had not only in his buying power, but hiring practices. Vayner NFT has a woman President in Avery Akkineni, who has had a successful track record already in the space and Gary could not have chosen a better person for a leadership position.

Speaking of buying power and the influence it can have on the buying habits of others in the space. World of Women's first collection sold out in a day after Gary Vaynerchuk promoted the NFTs.

Gary Vee liked the concept of Women Rise so much, that he minted 10 Women Rise NFTs at once, the max allowed per wallet.

Sara Baumann got her first big break with her Women and Weapons collection. Can you guess who was there to buy the first 3 pieces? Yep, Gary Vee. The rest of her genesis NFT collection, 10 paintings of women carrying weapons ranging from grenades to flamethrowers, then sold out in 45 seconds.

Rebels with a Cause

While there are some charitable causes in the crypto and NFT Space, women-led NFT projects set a great example with reaching out to help others. Some of the causes were mentioned along with the above projects, it is important to highlight some of the other change-makers.

Remarkable Women’s Impact Fund has proceeds earmarked for global causes such as women’s justice, equality, and inclusion, with this “remarkable” difference: It isn’t a board of supervisors that decide where the money goes and who it will impact. Its community decides and votes.

When you purchase an Alpha Girls Club NFT, is you gain all-inclusive access to a mental health app curated by the Alpha Girl Club Team. Some features of the mental health app will include their daily check-in system, access to mental health experts, exclusive content that will help you get through your day, and much more.

Vellum LA partnered with Artsyto present a Artists Who Code exhibition which features NFT art by female and non-binary artists, thus popularizing female and non-binary role models in the space. Another important initiative to follow up on this exposure is to focus on the recruitment of women and other underrepresented groups in the NFT and tech industry, something most female-led collections like, for example, CryptoChicks have openly stated doing in their hiring philosophy.**
**

Not a Conclusion, rather a beginning...

Web3 is allowing for a peer-to-peer economy and marketplace. The NFT art world took off like a rocket last year and for some it is about more than collecting and flipping NFTs, status symbol profile pics or just having too much crypto to spend. It is refreshing to see a movement with a cause, as opposed to ego-gloating personal finance and status.

The utility NFT movement is gaining steam. Access to real life events, various resources, future collections, collaborate with like minded artists and also get behind common causes. The winds of change are here, the more that get in early and get involved in this young space of unlimited possibilities have a chance to build not only their own future of dreams, but to help others achieve the same.

Women are making their mark in the NFT Space and allowing opportunities for other women to aspire to inspire. It is truly remarkable to see the creative power of women working together to build a better future together.

Cover Image: Women and Weapons #0010 by Sara Baumann