Original artwork - Matters of Conscience series
This is the first in a series on the treatment and status of women in our society. A look back in history to the birth of this nation reveals an astonishing dismissal of women’s perspectives in deliberations on the drafting of the Constitution and development of government institutions and operating procedures that are its instantiation. The social norms of that period regarding the perception and treatment of women, black Americans, and other groups as second-class (or lower) citizens were codified in these earliest national constructs and persist to this day. Locked Out is a commentary on how the environment created by these social norms manifests in modern day. There are many areas in which one could cast a light and see discouraging social disparities between women and men. For this artwork, a glaring light fell on the "glass ceiling". Less than five percent of the CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies are women, as reported in a recent business survey. The figure was appropriated from Valentine Cameron Prinsep’s artwork aptly titled At the Golden Gate (1882).