Creativity, Society, and Gender: Contextualizing and Redefining Creativity

Creativity is currently being redefined in more inclusive and accurate ways. This article examines old and new ways of viewing creativity, focusing especially on how creativity has been considered a male preserve and the need for a more inclusive definition that includes areas such as “everyday creativity.” It places definitions of creativity in their social and historical context, showing how a society’s orientation to a partnership model or a dominator model affects what and who is considered creative. It proposes an un-gendered definition of creativity; highlights the need for this broader definition to meet the enormous contemporary challenges we face; and distinguishes between innovativeness and creativity.