Women to the front Gendered street art geographies in Medellín, Colombia

This dissertation examines women’s pursuit of recognition and respect within Medellín’s male-dominated street art scene, addressing the central research question: How do women street artists experience, navigate, and respond to unequal gender relations in the geographies of their practice in Medellín, Colombia? Set against the backdrop of Colombia’s ongoing political unrest, peace processes, structural gender inequality, and the growing popularity of street art culture, this study explores how gender relations are shaped and contested within popular culture. It highlights disparities between male and female street artists in terms of social status, artistic imaginaries, socio-political viewpoints, lived experiences, and access to and use of public space. Drawing on a range of ethnographic methods, the research follows local street artists through the geographies of their practice, moving from (1) the streets of the barrios populares in the periphery to (2) intimate women-only spaces, to (3) commercial and (4) intuitional spaces in the (economic) city center, to (5) international digital spaces. Across these urban spaces, female artists encounter systemic barriers that restrict their visibility, limit their participation, and reproduce their underrepresentation in the public sphere. Through an analysis of these micropolitics of street art, space and gender, this ethnography contributes to the feminist geography debate.