Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Are female writers discriminated against in the review sections of magazines?

This article writer wonders if there's a glass ceiling. What's your opinion on this?

The numbers are startling. At Harper’s, there were 27 male book reviewers and six female; about 69 percent of the books reviewed were by male authors. At the London Review of Books, men wrote 78 percent of the reviews and 74 percent of the books reviewed. Men made up 84 percent of the reviewers for The New York Review of Books and authored 83 percent of the books reviewed. TNR, I’m sorry to say, did not compare well: Of the 62 writers who wrote about books for us last year, only 13 (or 21 percent) were women. We reviewed a total of 64 books, nine of them by women (14.5 percent). “We know women write,” poet Amy King writes on the VIDA website. “We know women read. It’s time to begin asking why the 2010 numbers don’t reflect those facts with any equity.

http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/82930/VIDA-women-writers-...

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Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on February 24, 2011 at 7:18pm

I think it comes down to being good at what you do rather than your gender. Maybe publishing is one of the last bastions of discrimination and sexism, and I have heard that rumor in the past. However this editor said it best in the article.

Peter Stothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, told The Guardian that he refused to “make a fetish” of having an equal number of male and female contributors. “The TLS is only interested in getting the best reviews of the most important books,” he said. I, too, like to think I choose the books that I review for their inherent interest, their literary quality.

It shouldn't be about proportional representation, it should be about quality. I like to believe that holds true. And being female didn't exactly harm J.K. Rowling, did it!

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Permalink Reply by Aries on February 24, 2011 at 7:32pm

Completely agreed with Kay's post. If you want to be equal on a top 10 list, you need to find 10 authors. All of them have to be of unique races (or equal distribution of each race). All of them have to be members of different top 10 world religions. Half of them have to be male, the other half female. 2 have to be bi, 2 have to be gay, 2 have to be straight, 2 have to be asexual, and 2 have to be pansexual. Half need to be minors, half need to be adults. One needs to be OCD, one autistic, one dyslexic, one suffering from PTSD...

See what I'm getting at? Thinking that numbers not being perfectly equal is some bizarre form of discrimination is just mindless rambling, and trying to make it equal means that a perfectly legit and skilled author will be shunted off the list in favor of a mediocre writer who fits into criteria that has no bearing on their writing. I could look at any list and say "There is a distinct lack of reviews about Amish authors on this list!"