Women artists are not total strangers to Turner history — in 1997, not a single male artist was short-listed. Only three female artists, however, have received the award in 24 years. While there's a hint of sexism in the commentary on this year's short list — Jonathan Jones of The Guardian cast his vote for Leckey and bemoaned the absence of several other male artists he believes have done more significant work this year — fans of this year's selections, including New York's own Jerry Saltz, are impressed with a breakaway from a certain insistence on shock. "It’s a list that clearly wants to put distance between itself and the Young British Artists generation," Saltz says. "Each of the artists works in a semi-understated conceptual way.” It's refreshing that women are dominating the competition in a year when the Turner appears to be taking a turn away from showiness and toward more obvious substance — reflected in the lack of menstrual blood and other in-your-face bodily materials in the work of this year's Turner women, tricks often overused in feminist art until now, baiting macho cries of blatant gender motivation.

The odds, of course, are on the lone male to win — the online bookmaker Ladbrokes has 5:6 odds on Lecky, compared with 11:4 for Wilkes. But who should win? We cast our vote for Wilkes, whose sculptural installations have the elegance of a Vanessa Beecroft performance and are as whimsically happy-making as a Jeff Koons puppy. These pretty mannequins, as mundane in their domestic surroundings as they are surprising, are determinedly feminist without insisting on it — perfect for this year's Turner. —Emma Pearse

Female artists dominate Turner shortlist [Guardian]