Professor Frima Fox Hofrichter has an article called “Gender and Art in the 17th Century” that has been published on Oxford Bibliographies in Art History and is available at www.oxfordbibliographies.com.
A short excerpt from the introduction of the article:
The subject of gender is not the same as the topic of women and art, but in the 17th century, a number of women artists altered the arena and women indeed are the focal point of a study of gender and art in the 17th century. A major consideration, and the one frequently dealt with in this bibliography, is that of the lives of women and specifically women artists, as this was still an unusual profession for women (who weren’t expected to have any) in the 17th century.
If you are interested in the reviewing the article click here.