Reality of Gender Disparity in Literary Journals

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Today, as they have every year since 2009, VIDA: Women in The Literary Arts, an organization dedicated to gender parity in the literary arts, released its annual count documenting the gaping divide between the number of men and women being published in literary magazines, journals and book reviews. Known as "The Count", this year's review of 39 organizations reveals the same imbalances as in prior years. To put that another way, there's been little progress in getting the voice of women and minorities in some of America and Britain's most influential publications.

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It is absurd, that in 2014, prominent publications and media companies attempt to justify these imbalances when it is evident that diversity in media decision-making and content production is consequential. For these numbers to change requires active interest and deliberate policies – like those undertaken during the past year at The Paris Review and The New York Times Review of Books. But, primarily, it requires an acknowledgement that sexism is real and that bias is institutionalized in our culture. Editors have to ask themselves, "Am I editing works by equal number of men and women? Are we reviewing books female authors?" and publishers have to hold them accountable.

Reference: Surprise: men still greatly outnumber women in US and UK arts publications (emphasis, added).

The Poetry Foundation & Poetry Magazine page on Facebook was pleased to be among the exceptions in Soraya Chemaly's piece on gender disparity in literary journals.  On the subject of equality among men and women, the US is far more advanced than some of the countries I've been to, such as Saudi Arabia, but it definitely has a long way to go.  Chemaly is right: Remedying this complex, longstanding problem requires, first and foremost, that all of us see this as a reality and as a problem.