Gender Bias

[Michelle Gagnon]

Or "Why I'll probably never receive a Nobel Prize." More information here

[Michelle Gagnon]

Hi IJ! No, I definitely wouldn't want awards to do that, but I guess my question is, were the books by the women really less deserving in those years? That's where the bias comes in...because I suspect that when it comes down to it, there does tend to be more support of male over female authors (according to SinC, their books even receive more reviews, even though women publish as many each year).

[I. J. Parker]

I suppose the fact that I publish as I. J. Parker suggests that the thought of gender bias crossed my mind at one time. However, my intention was from the beginning to distinguish my writing from "feminine" fiction, and not because I thought the books would be rejected by publishers and reviewers because I'm female. In fact, my biggest problem is with female readers who are not willing to accept a certain amount of of reality-based violence or sex or who will not read outside the narrow confines of Western civilization, preferably suitably romanticized and cleaned up.
Playing the numbers game for awards is, in my opinion, unworthy. Would you really have an awards committee settle on several fine books for nomination, and then toss out some titles to replace them with others in order to have equal numbers for each gender? You might question the gender make-up of the committees, but you should never give awards by gender.

[Michelle Gagnon]

I suspect you're right. Would love to see your post if you have a link to it.

[Bernd Kochanowski]

A while ago I did a post in which I compared the ratio of nominated females for several crime fiction awards and categories aggregated for 10 years.

Well, it seems as if in some cases the assumption might be true, that there is a certain gender-related bias towards men.