Why aren’t I reading more books by women? via @Annecdotist

Why aren’t I reading more books by women?

31/7/2018

I’m a woman. I enjoy novels written by women. Indeed, some of my favourite authors are women, such as Margaret Atwood, Carol Shields, Ann Patchett, Alison Moore. Six of my favourite reads from last year were written by women. So I don’t need to check whether female authors are fairly represented in my reading and reviewing, do I? It’ll just happen, in the natural way of things.

Well, not if misogyny is the natural way of things, such that we need #metoo conversations to support each other to redress the balance. Still, that shouldn’t affect me in the privacy of my reading chair, should it?

I felt slightly embarrassed to set myself a target earlier this year that at least 50% of the books I read would be by women. Only half? I’m all for achievable goals, but that should be a doddle. Yet I failed in the first month.

I’ve made up for it since, with 62% of my reading over the first six months of 2018 being by women. Better than half, but with no wiggle room for complacency.

Less than a week into July, I’d posted five reviews (six if you count 2017 Man Booker Prize winner Lincoln in the Bardo which I read for my book group); hurrah for me, except that every one was of a book written by a man. With five more male-authored books on my TBR shelf with publication dates this month, it didn’t look as if the balance would get any better.

So why should that be, and does it matter? Is it, you may well ask, simply fodder for my attempts to end each month with a post on reading?

One possible reason relates to another of my aims – which, incidentally, I was failing at more dismally until this month – to read at least 20% translations (I’ve managed 15% over the first six months of the year). I haven’t monitored this in detail – I’m obsessional, but not that obsessional – but, a glance at my translation shelf suggests that less than a quarter of such books coming my way are by women. This month I have reviewed an impressive six translations, but each has a male author and only two a female translator.

But it’s not only me. Works by women are underrepresented in translations, but the people behind the accounts on Twitter and Instagram are active in helping you find them. And with August designated women in translation month, expect more in the coming weeks!

It can be time-consuming flagging these worthwhile causes, however. Unfortunately, the read women Twitter account established by Joanna Walsh met its demise last month after four years of dedicated tweeting. Although I was disappointed to see it go, I must confess to having been fickle and/or negligent in my use of the hashtag.

Could it be that I don’t enjoy books by women as much as I thought I did? Or is it that my preferences have changed over time? When I posted on that topic last month one person (female) commented that she’d come to prefer fiction with a male narrator (although that doesn’t necessarily mean a male author). But I don’t think it’s that way for me.

If I believe in equality and I enjoy books by women, it has to matter if I fail to read enough. It matters for the authors who might not get their fair share of blogger support (although I don’t delude myself my support counts for much) and it matters for me personally if I’m missing out on the reading experiences I genuinely want.

I’m not sure what action to take, if any, but I can’t blame the publishers. Even if male writers dominate the book world, there are still more decent novels by women than I can possibly read. So I might need to try a bit harder to get my hands on them.

For now, I’ll wait to see whether being more aware of this will give me a better balance before the end of the year. Perhaps I can also find some way of improving on my paltry percentage (14% against a target of 25%) of BME authors.

So, tell me, what’s the rough ratio of male to female authors in your own reading? And should it matter if the women don’t get their share?

Follow this link for my other posts on reading habits and preferences. Tap or click the image for the thirteen reviews I’ve posted this month (the extra book is one I gave only a sentence Goodreads), with themes of murder and morality; teenage fugitives; holiday settings; a lifetime of lies; community control; and death-defying customs.

Assessing July’s 14 books against the reading targets I set myself earlier this year, I’ve excelled myself regarding independent publishers (86% – 12 books – against a 50% target) and, unusually, translations (with 43% – 6 books – against a 20% target). I’ve failed on female authors (29% – 4 books – against a 50% target), and BME authors (7% – 1 book – compared with a target of 25%).

Even though it didn’t make my personal favourites (I actually didn’t pick any this month), it did come close, so I’m delighted to see Milkman on the Man Booker Prize longlist.

10 Comments

Robbie Cheadle link

31/7/2018 05:32:36 am

I have never given thought to the gender of the author of the books I read. I would say it is pretty equal. I read books that appeal to me and sound interesting. I don't think I would change that based on a gender decision. Interesting thought, Anne.

Annecdotist

1/8/2018 03:09:35 pm

Thanks for sharing, Robbie. I wonder if you’ll notice more now, and whether that will be a welcome or unwelcome impact on your reading.

Terry Tyler

31/7/2018 09:54:19 am

I find that I read more books by men, often with a male narrator, simply because they write more of the stuff I want to read about. I'm not interested in 'women's fiction' (possibly the most sexist term in the whole industry!!), or romance, or thoughtful family dramas... and, alas, this is what many women write about. Let us not forget that it was women writers who brought us chick lit, which I consider did a great deal of harm to the way we are perceived, generally.

At the end of the day, though, should the sex of the writer matter? Isn't equality about not making those divisions? Not a criticism of you personally, I hasten to add, Anne, just something I'm throwing into the ring!! Good article :)

I will add, though, if we have to make the divisions, that the female authors I read over and over again are as follow: Gemma Lawrence, Deborah Swift, Kate Mary, Ann Swinfen, Jo Carroll, Val Poore.

Annecdotist

1/8/2018 03:17:47 pm

Thanks, Terry. I’m also allergic to chick lit, as well as to some light family dramas written by men. But there are lots of female authors writing serious, engaging and challenging fiction – much more than I have time to read.
I don’t think equality is about not noticing difference but about dismantling the causes of inequality. It seems to me that the biases against books by women must be quite strong if I’m failing to favour female authors in my reading despite my intentions.
And thanks for adding that list of the women you do rate.

Norah Colvin link

1/8/2018 08:04:46 am

Interesting, Anne. When I look at my shelves of both fiction and non-fiction, I would say the majority of books are written by men. If I were to name my favourite authors, most would probably be men.
But in my choice of picture books, the scales are probably tipped the other way.
Interviews I have posted on readilearn certainly favour women too. I've often thought I should rectify this and have wondered why the imbalance.
The number of women in my writing groups also far outnumber the men, so there should be plenty of books by women out there.
When I consider the bloggers I follow and the books of theirs I have read, once again, the numbers are mostly women.
I'm not sure that I choose books according to the gender of the author. I think it has more to do with the topic and my interest in it. When I was a child, there wasn't a lot of choice. Most books I read had male protagonists. I had to make a conscious decision to think about writing female characters when I came to writing.
I think the strongest message I got from your post is that books by men seem to feature more in promotions. Perhaps we need to do more about that.

Annecdotist

1/8/2018 03:25:50 pm

Thanks for adding your reflections, Norah. Another Australian reader responded to this post via Twitter saying similarly that, reading primarily Australian and New Zealand writers, the bias was towards men. I quickly scrabbled together some recommendations from my own recent reading, but only found six. (There might be others of course that I didn’t automatically register as Australian.)
I agree with you that author gender has a negligible impact on my enjoyment of a particular book – apart from when men don’t seem to realise there is an alternative to the male gaze – but if it’s an issue around promotion we need to be more alert.

J. M. Levinton link

1/8/2018 03:24:13 pm

You just made me walk into the other room to check out my bookcases (alas, my Kindle screen broke but I'm picking up a new one this week). Happily, I see a 50/50 ratio but I never check the gender when reading a book. If it looks interesting and well written, I'm hooked.

That said, I write under my initials because I know some readers are turned off by a woman writing urban fantasy. My pet peeve is knowing I can find books from both sexes in the scifi/fantasy section of a bookstore, but walking into five used books stores in Phoenix a few summers ago found my favorite female author urban fantasy books placed in the "paranormal romance" section whether or not there was any romance!

Annecdotist

1/8/2018 03:34:11 pm

Aargh, woman = romance! I hope they didn’t overlook the handbags and high-heeled shoes. And cutesy teddy bears with hearts on their sleeves.
Thanks for auditing your bookshelves and congratulations on the 50-50 split. Wishing you the best with your reading and writing.

Val Poore link

20/8/2018 05:01:14 pm

I've just read your article after seeing you RTd one of my tweets, Anne. It was very interesting and got me thinking too, so I started reading the comments. I always rate what Terry Tyler has to say, both as a blogger and a novelist, and was nodding over her words when I was both surprised and chuffed to see my name there. Thanks so much to Terry for that! As to my own choices, I love crime fiction, and oddly, there seem to be more women writers writing detective fiction than men, so on balance, I would say I probably read more female authors, but that definitely has to do with my choice of subject. Since I also prefer character driven books to action, sensation and explicit anything, it tends to rule out quite a number of male authors of the genre as well. Women crime writers seem to focus more on character development and psychology, so it just happens that I read more of them. My favourites are Donna Leon and Deborah Crombie for that very reason, but there are several others I enjoy, most of whom are female authors too, e.g. Joy Ellis, LM Krier and Carol Hedges. On the other hand, I love classic male writers such as Graham Greene, Laurie Lee and John Le Carré, but my choices are never based on author gender. By the way, although not a crime fiction writer, this is also why I love Terry's books. She is a master of character driven fiction.

Annecdotist

21/8/2018 10:41:42 am

Thanks for visiting, Val, and sharing your take on author gender. Like you, I appreciate character-based novels and there are many male writers who achieve this just as well as women. But if there is a bias in publishing, I’d like to do my (miniscule) bit to redress the balance as long as this doesn’t impact on quality. (Which it won’t.)

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