That Tor.com Poll

[owlmoose]

So Tor.com is running a poll asking readers to list their favorite science fiction books of the decade (where "the decade" is actually 11 years, 2000 through 2010). The poll closes tonight (Friday, 1/14, midnight EST). They're posting regular updates on the top vote-getters, and the current (as of Thursday, January 13th) list is here.

Two things jumped out at me about the Top Ten listed here. My first thought was how many of the books on it I've read; usually I don't do so well with lists like this, but this time I've actually read six out of the ten, and one (Anathem) I own but haven't read yet. Of the other three, there is one that I'm unlikely to read (the Sanderson), one I've never heard of, and one that I probably really ought to read, given how much I've heard about Patrick Rothfuss.

My second thought: "Hold on a minute, are those authors really all men?"

They aren't -- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke is at number five. But still.

As you read farther down the list, women get a little better represented: three more in the rest of the Top Twenty (JK Rowling, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Suzanne Collins), and six books by women in a list of 27 that could crack the top depending on how the voting patterns go. So that's 10 books by 9 women authors (Bujold is listed twice) out of 47 books by 33 authors total, or 21% and 27% respectively.

I have to run out the door for work, so no time for analysis, but it does raise the question: Is it really the case that only 25% of currently published science fiction and fantasy authors are female? Or is there something else going on here?

Comments

[elysdir]

Thanks for pointing this out. But yeah, sf award ballots in general tend to lean disproportionately toward male authors.

And as they note, "the Tor.com audience is too small in comparison to be reflective of book-buying audiences as a whole." It took only 20 votes to make the bottom of that list, and only 88 votes to make the top 10. (That's roughly comparable with the number of votes it takes to make the Hugo ballot in a given year.)

See also Broad Universe's stats page—it's a little out of date, but it has some interesting stuff.

[owlmoose]

Definitely -- thanks for the link. Seems like the trends are mostly positive, but moving slowly, and changing faster in fantasy than in SF, which doesn't surprise me.

I'm familiar with the issue around women not receiving and especially being nominated for the major SF awards, particularly the Hugos. Interesting that the Campbell Award is the only one (besides the Tiptree, for obvious reasons) that has started honoring more women. Sign of changes coming in the field? But in that case, I'd expect to see more women among the "regular" Hugos as well.

I'll be interested to see what the final Top 10 in the Tor poll looks like, as well as the complete list that they're talking about publishing.

[cypher]

...If you want my copy of Name of the Wind, I'd be happy to send it to you. I couldn't get through it; after a few hundred pages where women were either idealized (main character's mother) or just not there, he gave us a scene with a woman as a prop, getting sexually harassed by the Draco Malfoy analogue as a convenient way for the main character to further his rivalry with the guy (by "rescuing" her, which she cannot do herself).

It wasn't the only thing that bothered me about the story, but it was definitely the tipping point where I stopped being willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[owlmoose]

Ugh, not exactly a ringing endorsement. Thanks for the heads up! I hate it when people praise books to the skies while leaving little details like that out.

[cypher]

Yeah, I've been disappointed on that front more than once myself. (Several people have recced me Joe Abercrombie's stuff really highly, but I've also seen one or two posts talking about his gender fail, so I...am a little wary. And suspicious of the reccers' tastes in general now.)