'A good time to be a woman'?: women artists, feminism and Tate Modern

Unlike many of its comparator institutions, for example the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London has not hosted an explicitly feminist exhibition or collections programme. This essay asks whether feminism has influenced Tate Modern at all. The essay identifies and evaluates different methodologies for interpreting the gender politics of a museum collection, and extends its evalution to temporary exhibitions, matters of display and other mechanisms of interpretation. The essay applies the results of the methodological discussion to the specific example of Tate Modern since its opening in 2000, considering the actual collection but focussing chiefly on temporary exhibitions (including the high-profile Turbine Hall Commissions), displays of the permanent collection, wall texts and other interpretive material that are examined through evidence acquired during site visits and consultation of archival material. The final part of the essay develops a theme raised in the book's introduction, the influence of neo-liberalism in the museum sector and the evolution of a fundamentally commercial relationship between museum and audience, to reflect on the gender-political implications of Tate Modern's popularizing the museum through the explicit use of the 'high street' as a model.