The glass ceiling is real, folks. Men get paid more in many professions, and writing is no different. Whether it’s scientific journals, literary magazines, or books, women are not as well represented and even when they are, they are often paid less. Even for non-writers, pay for women in the publishing world is less than it should be.

The Gender Gap in Publishing Companies

HarperCollins UK reported that 66% of their employees were women in 2020 and their executive committee was 50% women. That year, they reported a mean (average) gender pay gap of 15.3% (16.3% in 2019) and a median (middle) pay gap of 8.8% (8.8% in 2019). What progress has been made is slow and incremental.

Penguin Random House UK has also shared their data. Similarly, they hired 66% women in 2021 but their leadership team was 53% women. In 2022, they reported a mean pay gap of 12.3% (10.4% in 2021) and a median pay gap of 3.7% (3.6% in 2021). Sad to see that things are going in the wrong direction.

The Gender Gap in Scientific Papers

After looking at more than 10 million scientific and medical studies, a study in PLOS Biology (DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.2004956) found that women were not only underrepresented as authors at large, they were also less likely to be the senior author when they did publish. Concern was also raised about biases by the publishers themselves, noting that women were less likely to be published in more prestigious journals and that those journals were twice as likely to ask a man to submit a paper.

The Gender Gap in Literary Magazines

Speaking of publisher bias, VIDA Count – Women in Literary Arts looks at the number of publications by women in major print literary magazines and book reviews around the world. According to the most recent results, the results still skew towards male authorship. In 2018, only four of the top 15 publications (Boston Review, Granta, Poetry, and Tin House) published more women than men, although this is improved compared to only two the previous year. All in all, woman writers represented less than 40% of the articles at six of those publications. The New York Review of Books posted a mere 27.1%.

The Gender Gap in Books

The New York Times Best Seller List is the dream for many writers. For years, men held the top spots. Rosie Cima from The Pudding did an analysis and found that the gap is closing. Whereas it was 3:1 in the 50s, it is now closer to 1:1. Finally some good news, right?!

While readers may enjoy books written by women, it doesn’t mean they will necessarily pay more for them. A study in PLOS One (DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0195298) looked at the pricing of nearly 2.5 million books. For books published by traditional publishers, those written by women were priced 45% lower than those written by men. When compared within the same genre, women still priced 9% lower. What is particularly disturbing is that a price gap persisted for self-published works, even when the author usually sets the rate. Specifically, there was a price gap of 7% for books at large and 4% within a specific genre. Why are some women underselling themselves?

Perhaps it’s because more attention has been given to men. The Emilia Report, named for English poet Emilia Bassano, found that men receive 56% of press coverage, and in some cases, when comparing male and female authors of similar stature, women got no coverage at all. Looking at 10,000 books reviewed by the New York Times Book Review, undergraduates at McGill University in Canada found that two-thirds of them were written by men. It’s not all that different in the film industry when movies fail the Bechdel Test. Women are not being given equal opportunity and that has to change.

What Can We Do?

Publishers could, and some are, looking at their hiring practices, trying to increase the percentage of women in higher-level positions. Literary magazines and journals could consider blinding submissions to gender. Book reviewers could track their reviews to assure fair representation.

The media needs to look at their biases too. As noted in The Emilia Report, why are many women writers asked about their age in interviews but men aren’t? It’s like asking a woman who she’s wearing on the red carpet while asking her male peer about the depth of the role he played. When coverage is given, make it count. A woman’s work is as important as a man’s.

It’s not just those within the industry either. Readers count too. Look at your own biases. How many books have you read by female authors? Do you favor male writers for certain genres? Why are you choosing one book over another? If you actively chose to read more books by women, more women would have a chance to be seen. It’s a small step and one that we can all take to make big change.

 

The Gender Balance of The New York Times Best Seller List. (2016). The Pudding. https://pudding.cool/2017/06/best-sellers/

Harper Collins Gender Pay Report 2020. Harper Collins UK. https://corporate.harpercollins.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2021/06/Gender-Pay-Gap-Report-2020.pdf

Harper Collins Gender Pay Gap Report 2019. Harper Collins. https://d2aa8wn3bug3i3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/28085515/GPG2019_report.final_.pdf

Holman, L., Stuart-Fox, D., & Hauser, C. E. (2018). The gender gap in science: How long until women are equally represented? PLOS Biology, 16(4), e2004956. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2004956‌

Pay Gap Reports. (2022). Penguin Random House UK. https://www.penguin.co.uk/company/about-us/notices/gender-pay-gap-reports

VIDA Count. (2020). VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. https://www.vidaweb.org/the-count/

Weinberg, D. B., & Kapelner, A. (2018). Comparing gender discrimination and inequality in indie and traditional publishing. PLOS ONE, 13(4), e0195298. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195298‌