The Gender Gap In Literary Publishing: A Female Writer Discusses

PBS:

When Vida -- an organization promoting women in the arts -- released its statistics about how many women versus men are published in a variety of magazines and book review sections, the results were not exactly news. Every so often someone will count up bylines and find that at many major publications -- from the mighty New Yorker to the arty Tin House -- men heavily outweigh the women.

Read the whole story: PBS

Comments

[eric14]

10:29 AM on 02/13/2011

Interesting topic. Boring, weird treatment. Poetry? WTF? What about the news?

[gayleg]

06:41 PM on 02/12/2011

Yet women make up what percentage of English majors?

This just shows us, yet again, how the Old Boy's Network works. Men are giving other men the jobs and leaving women out. Sadly the few women who make it to the top are often doing the same (giving hte plum jobs to men).

Since women are the ones reading in this country, you would think this could all be easily remedied. Women need to yank the decision maker spots away from men and then promote other women's work-- A New Girls Network, if you will.

[c-tom]

07:09 PM on 02/12/2011

"But he points out — and this is going to be a familiar refrain as I talk to more editors and publishers — that the number of submissions by men heavily outweigh the submissions by women."
How does that old boy network stop women from writing and submitting to publishers?

[eric14]

10:29 AM on 02/13/2011

Men are so submissive.

[Norm]

06:03 PM on 02/12/2011

Do women think women are so advanced they do not need to comment on issues like this? If the answer is yes, I would like to direct them to the congress. It is discouraging that articles like this do not seem to attract even a little interest.

[lmktacwa]

04:18 PM on 02/12/2011

More women are graduating from College than men these days... hopefully this will result in us seeing a balance that represents the population demographic mix (roughly 50/50)... but of course, as always, quality should trump quantity...

[gayleg]

06:43 PM on 02/12/2011

This has nothing to do with demographics or how many women are graduating these days. Women are overrepresented in the college arts and have been for a long time.

This is plain old boring sexism at work-- dudes giving other dudes the good gigs.

[Norm]

12:42 PM on 02/12/2011

This was brought to my attention when I received this week's New Yorker: Some women are actually represented. But on reading one, who wrote a piece on George Elliot via her own history, I actually winced. I am female, but wished she hadn't gone into her personal angst, which diminished the piece. The story was just too female, with trite life choices and options faced. I am female and expected better. We really need to explore a larger view and if your history is tedious, do not share it!

[gayleg]

06:47 PM on 02/12/2011

Well, of course if one woman wrote an article you disliked, others will too.

Because all women are exactly the same.

[Norm]

06:56 PM on 02/12/2011

Oh stop. I winced reading the article because how she framed her article reinforces stereotypes and women rarely get published in the New Yorker. Either she or the editors forced her into a pink ghetto and, yes, I don't like it. Not a bit.

[Lisa Shields]

11:14 PM on 02/11/2011

A few things occur to me, reading this piece.

1. Women are more likely to listen when men speak...and also when they write. Since publishing has so long been a "man's game", breaking into writing is difficult, even though there are now far more publishers and editors who are women...not to mention agents.

2. Women still fight the "light weight" label. While we need the "work of women", we consider it frivolous, and even the "formula genres" are dominated by men...including the ever frothy romantic fiction category. A friend in publishing once told me that an extraordinary number of "female authors" in romantic fiction are actually men. (See Harlequin Romances.)

3. We expect women to "feel" things...but not make us think...sexism at its worst.

4. Despite 30 years of supposed "social change", women are still not given serious attention. Every writer tries write something they think the world will find of interest...but women are not "interesting" as story tellers...I wish I knew why.

(These are observations...not things I agree with. I personally think they stink.)

I am not fond of many women regarded as "serious writers". Few pass the 50 page test...and some are down right painful to read. Behind every published novel is an editor who thought someone would want to read it...my question is statistically, how many "duds" are produced by male authors, versus females?

[Norm]

12:46 PM on 02/12/2011

I firmly believe woman can write as powerfully as men, but also get the impression female magazine writers are employed to attract the pink half of the population. It is insulting and diminishes author and audience.

[eric14]

11:01 AM on 02/14/2011

Women still fight the "light weight" label. While we need the "work of women", we consider it frivolous, and even the "formula genres" are dominated by men...incl­uding the ever frothy romantic fiction category.
---------------------------------------------
Really? That is arguable. There may be a slight numerical advantage to the male but the presence of women writers in ''formula genres'' makes the use of ''dominated by men'' seem an exaggeration.

[Lisa Shields]

11:06 AM on 02/14/2011

And i welcome the debate...but if I asked you to name 10 writers you regularly read?
How many are women?