Arlene Raven's parents were Joseph and Annette Rubin, middle-class Jewish-American parents, in Baltimore, Maryland. Her father was a bar owner, mother was a homemaker She studied at several colleges and universities including, Hood College, George Washington University and The Johns Hopkins University.

She earned an MFA in painting and a MA and PhD in art history. She also received an Artium Baccalaureatus from Hood College in Maryland.

Raven held teaching positions as Graduate Critic in Residence at the California Institute of the Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art, Parsons The New School for Design, UCLA, University of Southern California and The New School for Social Research. She was also a lecturer and was the architect of educational programs at the Feminist Studio Workshop at the Woman's Building. Raven was, in the 1980s, the chief art critic for the Village Voice.

She curated ten exhibitions, including ones for the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Long Beach Museum of Art.

Raven was a major figure in the Feminist Art Movement, instrumental in freeing that art from male dominance. She championed the works of male and female artists including the works of Nancy Grossman, and Judy Chicago.

In 2002, Raven received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism from the College Art Association.

Raven died of kidney cancer at her home in Brooklyn, New York on 1 August 2006, aged 62. She was survived by her long-time partner, artist Nancy Grossman, and a sister, Phyllis.

Raven authored nine books, including:

• Feminist Art Criticism: An Anthology (1988) (and editor
• Art in the Public Interest (1989)
• New Feminist Art (1993)

Monographs:

• Nancy Grossman (1991)
• June Wayne: Tunnel of the Senses (1997)