It’s a testament to how far women illustrators have come that nearly all those contacted for this article expressed a feeling of equality with their male peers. While this is certainly good news for society, it threw a bit of a wrench in my journalistic plans. After all, controversy makes better headlines than polite admiration.

In the 15 or so years I’ve been covering the illustration field, I’ve seen great change resulting from both cultural and economic factors, and the kind of change that is inevitable with technological advance. But despite the gloom and doom scenario that has been painted for the future of illustration, today work that bears the touch of the hand is coming back into vogue. As some doors have closed to illustrators, others have been flung wide open to those with entrepreneurial spirit. No longer confined to editorial pages, book covers, and greeting cards, women’s art graces packaging, advertisements, and animation, not to mention clothing and a host of other products, including online boutique offerings such as limited-edition toys, self-published books, and prints—QVC for the hip art crowd. “There is much more opportunity today for female illustrators to shine,” says Simone Friend, of artists’ representatives Friend & Johnson, “especially when you see the products that use their work: Tampax, McDonald’s, Stayfree, Dove, United, cars, radio stations, the fashion industry, books, packaging. It’s endless.”

It wasn’t always that way. To succeed in illustration in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a woman had to be blessed with a family of sufficient means to provide an education that included drawing in the curriculum. She also needed abundant talent and a fierce drive to open doors in a world closed to those without a Y chromosome. If she persevered, she still faced strong prejudices as to the place of women in the workplace and the subject matter considered appropriate for her to illustrate. Only the most fortunate and ambitious women were able to claim any measure of success. Today, however, talent and hard work may be enough; art directors look for style or a certain “feel,” not at the artist’s gender. In a complex world rife with events both tragic and ridiculous, illustration can provide insight and a bit of distance, and act as cultural icon. (I [heart] NY anybody?) “There is opportunity everywhere,” asserts Barbara Nessim, who has seen great change over her 45 years in the industry and who helped lead the digital revolution. “One has to have a positive attitude and be open to exploring every avenue. Change is a given and if you continue to grow with it you will always land on your feet. The world will always need images, and we are image makers.”