The other half of the creative population are never given the same qualifier.

But anyone who visits the National Gallery of Australia over the next year will be treated to a major, and majorly joyful, explanation of exactly why the debate over where women sit in the art world needs to change.

Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now is one of the country's biggest ever display's of art by Australian women, featuring some 400 works by 170 artists.

The long-anticipated show, which will run in two parts over the next 12 months, is part of the gallery's commitment to redressing the gender imbalance that has long been a part of its own collection, as well as throughout the country and the wider world.

Last year, just 25 per cent of the gallery's Australian art collection was by women, prompting a reconsideration of collection policies and practices.

Launching the exhibition on Friday, co-curator Deborah Hart said there had long been debate about whether women could ever be as good as men in the art world.

"But women's art is every bit as good, and it's here in spades," she said.

Behind her was a wall covered, salon-style, in dozens of artworks featuring women, created over the past 100 years.

At the very start of the wall, by the entrance to the show, is a large-scale photographic portrait of local indigenous elder Dr Matilda House by artist and curator Brenda L. Croft.

Croft, who was on hand for the launch, alongside several other artists featured in the exhibition, said she was proud to see her work displayed so prominently.

"It makes a statement of where we are - we're on Ngambri-Ngunnawal land and here is a living matriarch," she said. "It's not about the past, it's about here and now and what will take us into the future."

Walking through the exhibition, veteran printmaker Alison Alder was brought to tears seeing her own works on display in such a momentous exhibition.

"I think that we've definitely progressed as a society but we've still got a long way to go, and this is a reminder of how we have to keep working at it," she said

"For young women to see this legacy can only be amazing, because when I was a young student there were hardly any women artists in cultural institutions, it was mainly men."

For acclaimed Canberra artist eX de Medici, the exhibition was overdue, but better late than never.

She said while the gallery had been collecting her works since the earliest parts of her nearly 40-year career, she had always been aware that she was working against the established grain.

"That was always a big impetus, that you just keep moving, and I guess you've really just got to have an attitude that you can't let the paradigm keep you in a box," she said.