This International Women’s Day (IWD), The Cultivist sits down with Sarah Hoover—essayist, art historian, and unstoppable cultural force whose impact stretches across art, fashion, literature, and beyond. Formerly a director at Gagosian, Sarah has evolved into a powerful voice on motherhood, feminism, and culture. Drawing from her own personal journey, she has contributed thought-provoking pieces to Vogue and The Strategist, delving into everything from pregnancy and postpartum depression to the multifaceted nature of motherhood.

In her recent memoir, The Motherload, she takes these explorations to new depths.  The IWD 2025 theme, "Accelerating Action," calls for urgency in closing the gender equality gap—one that’s currently trailing five generations behind. Join us as Sarah shares her thoughts on the evolving role of women in the cultural sphere and what meaningful change looks like today.

Which areas in art, fashion, and literature have the most potential to drive change for women through collaborations, shared platforms, or mutual influence?

All of em! And it’s going to take a multi pronged attack, requiring real collaboration. And friendship. And probably a bar and some snacks.

How do female storytellers reshape cultural narratives, and how can institutions better support the mainstream distribution of women’s stories?

In my experience the most effective way to make change is by truth telling, by sharing our personal stories without shame. Which is hard! Because we’ve all been taught our whole lives to be polite, not make a scene, not draw attention to ourselves. It takes practice, great effort and intense focus to break through the barriers or fear and embarrassment. But whenever I’ve done it, I’ve found that my experiences are somehow pretty universal. And I’m a lot less alone than I thought. Institutions have to reward bravery.

What structural changes in the art market—such as gallery representation or auction systems—are most needed to ensure financial stability for female artists?

On an educational level, female artists have to be taught not as an appendage to art history but as equally valuable examples to their male counterparts. I only learned about women artists as an addendum—like “oh, and these women were sort of doing it too, but not as famously or as well.” And often, the truth is that women were the real pioneers of a movement, or were the people in the background doing emotional and real labor to give male artists the space to create and be glorified for it. Auction houses and galleries have to do their own client education in the same way as you would expect a university to—they need real stories told in their catalogues and press releases.

How have feminist art movements shaped representations of motherhood, and where is there room for more diverse and intersectional perspectives?

I think a lot of women artists have stayed away from making art about motherhood, about children and pregnancy. Most collectors are men, right? And they have not been well trained by our culture to be interested in women’s stories—how many movies pass the bechdel test? How many women's stories are read in high school literature classes? It would follow that we don‘t expect them to want to buy art about women’s truths. It’s brave when artists have ignored that reality and made their art anyway, and that should be rewarded by institutions which can canonize artists by collecting them and showing them. Another great prong of attack is to encourage women to become collectors themselves.