Recently, Publisher’s Weekly released the list of best books of ’09. Recently after that, Women in Letters and Literary Arts (WILLA) raised a bit of hell that there were no lady writers in the top ten. Even more recently than that, Issue Five contributor Amelia Gray wrote a lucid essay over at the Huff Post, which sorts the whole mess out in a level-headed, thought provoking manner.
Why are there more men than women on the PW list? Simply because there are more men submitting to publishers. Read the piece here.
Thanks HTMLGiant for the heads up.
Thanks Plan59 for the image.
Perhaps a look at why so many more men are submitting to publishers than women is necessary?
or at least might be interesting.
Dang, good point Robinson. This is just me speculatin’ here but…
Could have something to do with our patriarchal society in general. Men are given more positive reinforcement perhaps? In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell talks about one of the reasons successful people succeed is because they have been taught, from a very young age, that it is their duty to go out and engage with the world to get what they want, instead of laying back and letting it come to them. Granted, we don’t live in a society run by fundamental Islam, but if you look closely there subtle and not so subtle messages sent out to young American girls to be comfortable with subjugation. Maybe a sign of that is clear in the writing world. Men feel more empowered, therefore they submit more often. What do you think?