VIDA: Women in Literary Arts have released a report entitled “The Count 2010,” revealing that male writers outnumbered female writers in many publications last year.
The report measured the gender balance among writers published at literary magazines, including: Granta (overall: 26 women, 49 men), The Paris Review (overall: 32 women, 59 men), and The New Yorker (overall: 163 women, 449 men). They also looked at authors reviewed, book reviewers, and interviews at certain publications, including: Harper’s (book reviewers: 6 women, 27 men) and The New York Times (book reviewers: 295 women, 438 men).
What do you think? The article offered the following observation: “What, then, are they really telling us? We know women write. We know women read. It’s time to begin asking why the 2010 numbers don’t reflect those facts with any equity.”
Poets Cate Marvin and Erin Belieu founded VIDA “to address the need for female writers of literature to engage in conversations regarding the critical reception of women’s creative writing in our current culture.” A number of authors serve on the board of directors.