And the winner is -- the Y chromosome
I recently posted a question on a listserve for librarians, asking whether there is a bias toward males in kidlit awards and promotion. Some interesting and informative responses resulted, as did some interesting replies to those responses in various private message boards. In the interest of generating a more-public discussion, and allowing everyone to talk in the same place, I'm posting my original question here (with slight modifications to remove the library-specific aspects). ANother interesting blog post, focusing on the Caldecott, can be found here.
START OF ORIGINAL POST
There's been a passionate discussion among authors about whether (or why) there seems to be a disparity between the ratio of male to female authors and the ration of male to female award and honors recipients. Many of the female authors I know would love to see the issue discussed in public, but most feel it would seem whiny for the affected side to raise the issue. (I can testify that none of the parties in the discussion is in any way whiny.) Anyhow, I figured it would make for a good discussion (and might shed some light on aspects the authors hadn't considered), so here's the basic issue. Based on various unscientific methods, there seem to be far more women than men writing YA. (All that follows holds true for books for younger readers, and for illustrators, too, but I'll stick with YA since it
takes less time to type.) The ratio could be as high as 7 or 8 to 1. (While scanning a Goodreads list of all YA from 2011, I ran into such a high female-to-male ratio that I had to take a break and get a testosterone shot.) The ratio of male to female award and honors winner for the major awards, over the years, is about 1 to 1. (Interestingly, BFYA -- Best Fiction for Young Adults -- ran 2 to 1 female this year, and 4 to 1 for top 10.)
So, we have the fact of the award ratio, and the probable fact of the writer ratio. Now, we get to the discussion issues. It boils down to two questions. 1. Is there a bias toward males when it comes to industry recognition? 2. If there is a bias, where does it come from? If the answer to #1 is "no," then #2 is moot. Note that there seem to be two ways to disprove bias. You could show that the ratio is actually closer to 1 to 1. Or you could show that the ratio of books which might reasonably be considered for awards and honors is closer to 1 to 1. (This is one of the areas where the expertise of librarians would come in handy.)
Those who believe there is a bias have offered various explanations. The most common claim is that publishers tend to promote male authors more than female authors. Again, librarians, being on the target end of much of the promotion, should be able to offer some insights. Those of you who receive boxes of books should be able to share some thoughts. Another issue is the ratio of female to male librarians. Some writers wonder whether this has any affect on awards. (Don't shoot the messenger.)
There are a lot of people out there who would love to hear your thoughts on this. I hope some of them will slip into the discussion with their own insights. And, just to make sure I'm not the target of any cranky responses, I have to emphasize that I'm interested in the issue, but not involved or invested. For me, this is purely an academic question.
END OF ORIGINAL POST
One issue I neglected to mention was that of physical appearance. Many feel that there are vastly different standards in the publishing world when it comes to what is acceptable or desirable in male and female authors. Some feel that more men than women are sent on book tours. Some feel that men have an advantage when conferences book speakers. Obviously, many of these issues aren't restricted to publishing. (There's been a similar discussion on SUMO-bk, for example.)
I look forward to a spirited discussion. I hope some of you who posted in the listserve will copy your posts here.
START OF ORIGINAL POST
There's been a passionate discussion among authors about whether (or why) there seems to be a disparity between the ratio of male to female authors and the ration of male to female award and honors recipients. Many of the female authors I know would love to see the issue discussed in public, but most feel it would seem whiny for the affected side to raise the issue. (I can testify that none of the parties in the discussion is in any way whiny.) Anyhow, I figured it would make for a good discussion (and might shed some light on aspects the authors hadn't considered), so here's the basic issue. Based on various unscientific methods, there seem to be far more women than men writing YA. (All that follows holds true for books for younger readers, and for illustrators, too, but I'll stick with YA since it
takes less time to type.) The ratio could be as high as 7 or 8 to 1. (While scanning a Goodreads list of all YA from 2011, I ran into such a high female-to-male ratio that I had to take a break and get a testosterone shot.) The ratio of male to female award and honors winner for the major awards, over the years, is about 1 to 1. (Interestingly, BFYA -- Best Fiction for Young Adults -- ran 2 to 1 female this year, and 4 to 1 for top 10.)
So, we have the fact of the award ratio, and the probable fact of the writer ratio. Now, we get to the discussion issues. It boils down to two questions. 1. Is there a bias toward males when it comes to industry recognition? 2. If there is a bias, where does it come from? If the answer to #1 is "no," then #2 is moot. Note that there seem to be two ways to disprove bias. You could show that the ratio is actually closer to 1 to 1. Or you could show that the ratio of books which might reasonably be considered for awards and honors is closer to 1 to 1. (This is one of the areas where the expertise of librarians would come in handy.)
Those who believe there is a bias have offered various explanations. The most common claim is that publishers tend to promote male authors more than female authors. Again, librarians, being on the target end of much of the promotion, should be able to offer some insights. Those of you who receive boxes of books should be able to share some thoughts. Another issue is the ratio of female to male librarians. Some writers wonder whether this has any affect on awards. (Don't shoot the messenger.)
There are a lot of people out there who would love to hear your thoughts on this. I hope some of them will slip into the discussion with their own insights. And, just to make sure I'm not the target of any cranky responses, I have to emphasize that I'm interested in the issue, but not involved or invested. For me, this is purely an academic question.
END OF ORIGINAL POST
One issue I neglected to mention was that of physical appearance. Many feel that there are vastly different standards in the publishing world when it comes to what is acceptable or desirable in male and female authors. Some feel that more men than women are sent on book tours. Some feel that men have an advantage when conferences book speakers. Obviously, many of these issues aren't restricted to publishing. (There's been a similar discussion on SUMO-bk, for example.)
I look forward to a spirited discussion. I hope some of you who posted in the listserve will copy your posts here.