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In the 24 years of the Turner Prize, only three female artists have won. The odds for a fourth have been raised with the announcement that three out of four artists on this year's shortlist - Bangladeshi-born Runa Islam, Goshka Macuga from Poland and the Belfast-born artist Cathy
Wilkes - are women.
The only male contender for the prize, which will be awarded on December 1, is Mark Leckey, from London. Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Britain and chairman of the judging panel, said the shortlist was less a conscious effort to redress gender imbalance than a happy coincidence. "There's [an above] average chance of a woman winning this year. But the judges made their choices based on individuals," he said.
A female Turner winner for 2008 is not a foregone conclusion. Three women were also selected in 1998 when Sam Taylor-Wood, Tacita Dean and Cathy de Monchaux were nominated alongside Chris Ofili - and Ofili won.
This year, it is Leckey, a "modern-day dandy" whose video work is inspired by cartoons, who is favourite to win. When the finalists were announced this week, Ladbrokes cut their odds on the 43-year-old to win from 5/4 favourite to 5/6.
The shortlist has no paintings and is more conceptual than last year's winner, Mark Wallinger, whose replica of the one-man anti-war protest in Parliament Square was described as a return to political art.
And, while the selection of relatively unknown artists may be criticised, Sir Nicolas Serota, director of the Tate, said the prize was about emerging talent. "I think the prize is about giving younger artists the opportunity for their work to be seen in a big public institution," he said.
Wilkes, 42, who lives and works in Glasgow, uses shop mannequins, including one with a baby buggy, as a comment on women and sexuality.
Islam, 37, has interwoven film footage of the car park in Gateshead in the Michael Caine film, Get Carter, with shots of the architect's original maquette and a fictitious recreation of an unrealised restaurant at the top.
Macuga, 40, has been described as a "cultural archaeologist" with works such as Picture Room, which consisted of a series of folding panels designed by the architect Sir John Soane on which she hung pieces by 30 contemporary artists. Rachel Whiteread was the first woman to win the prize in 1993. Gillian Wearing and Tomma Abts have since won.
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