Visibility without protection: gendered barriers to artistic practices and science communication through art in academia

Artistic practices offer researchers alternative modes of expression and, in some cases, of science communication, yet they remain institutionally marginal within academia. This study first develops a theoretical framework to explain the symbolic and structural exclusions that women face in artistic practices and science communication through art and then illustrates it with empirical evidence. Drawing on a national survey of 6276 researchers and an expert workshop in Spain, we show that gender, ideology, and caregiving responsibilities intersect to limit women’s participation in science communication through art—an emergent but under-recognised form of academic labour—particularly among more conservative researchers. We conceptualise this condition as visibility without protection, whereby science communication through art exposes researchers to increased public visibility without corresponding institutional support. The study clarifies how structural and cultural dynamics combine to produce gendered vulnerability in science communication through art and calls for academic norms that better recognise diverse forms of knowledge expression.