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Is the future female?
17.06.11 | Tom Tivnan
The other day I went to visit a major London publisher. As I walked through the open plan offices, I saw perhaps 50 to 60 people and my low estimate would be that there were 75% women there. This is not an anomaly. Visit any publisher, go to any book launch and the majority of book trade folk there will be women.
This goes some way to explaining why women make up two-thirds—26 of 39 entries—in The Bookseller's Rising Stars, our inaugural listing of the next generation of the British book trade. We did not have a feminist agenda in setting up our list. It was just that women happened to be the majority of candidates at the level we were looking at—the second, third and fourth jobbers; the commissioning editors on the rise; the booksellers who are surviving and thriving in the digital era.
The gender balance of the Rising Stars contrasts greatly with that of our Bookseller 100, our annual listing of the top brass in the book trade. Our last 100 in 2010 had just 29 women in the top jobs. As with the Rising Stars, we did not have an agenda with the 100, we simply judged on merit from the candidates available—that 30% female/70% men probably reflects the gender split in the boardroom and m.d. level as the 66% female/34% male more or less accurately reflects the middle level.
The glass ceiling was shattered long ago in the book trade, and the UK in particular does better than most comparative industries, with some very powerful women at the very top. Pearson's Majorie Scardino, after all, is the head of the world's biggest publisher, and there's Random's Gail Rebuck, HC's Victoria Barnsley and Macmillan's Annette Thomas at the c.e.o. level, plus is a slew of heads of houses/m.d.s including Jane Morpeth, Louise Moore, Susan Sandon, Rebecca Smart and Belinda Budge.
There are, of course, larger societal issues here that have to be taken account about the gender divide at the top. The effect of raising families hampers women's careers more than men's, and that may continue even with liberalised paternity leave laws.
The question is, in 10 to 20 years' time will we have some sort of gender parity in the top of the book trade? Will our female Rising Stars become the c.e.o.s of tomorrow, or will the top jobs continue to be given out disproportionately to men?
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Of course, another way of looking at this is to view publishing as increasingly a female profession. After all, if 75 per cent or more of the new intake are women, it follows that men are being squeezed out of the system. The question will be not can women make it to the top, but can men hang on in the book business?
This feminist optimism is all very nice, but surely the fact that the men are moving out just means that publishing is becoming ever less prestigious and relevant, and ever worse-paid in comparison with other professional options? It happened with teaching.
UK mean income for males age 35 - 39 is about £32k, for women only £21k - I'm afraid this goes some way towards explaining why a generally-lower-paying industry such as ours is female-skewed.
Many in publishing would like to see a more equal gender balance - but to do that, we frankly have to reward our employees better.
You seem to be implying that only men are able to work in 'prestigious and relevant' industries, in fact that they are prestigious and relevant purely because of their dominance by men. So by the workforce becoming more female orientated, publishing is losing its prestige and relevance. Is this meant to be as sexist as it comes across?
You also seem to be implying that teaching lost its prestige and relevance. I can think of few professions more relevant than teaching.
Women dominate "rising stars" list in a female-dominated industry...sorry, but where's the story?
Rubbish, this world is greedy and intolerant. No one will agree to equal pay, it is easier to use a female pseudonym. I manged to be a #no.1 best selling fiction author with The Sun Sharer. No one helped me, and that is the point. 'Dog eat dog'. And next year I will do the same with The Ebb and Flow in my real name David Edwards. A male name hiding a woman deep inside. As I say, rubbish Mr.Cox.
Frankly mate it sounds as though you have a screw loose.
I would be interested to discover the career paths of the male top brass mentioned - have they worked their way up from the bottom or crossed over from other industries? I wonder because, having written more than 200 children's books in the last 14 years, and edited a children's page in a national newspaper, I have worked with scores of females but just a few males (three writers, two designers and one publicist). Are young men not interested in publishing, or is there another reason they are not being recruited? Whatever the gender bias created post-babies, there appears to be a curious gender bias operating before any such family planning plays a role.
Also, can anyone tell me why only arts graduates appear to work in children's non-fiction? I don't think I've ever worked with an editor who has a scientific education - even though the bulk of the books I work on are about science of one sort or another. It's a steep learning curve for a young editor who hasn't even got biology GCSE under her belt - sometimes my first job is to teach my editor about the subject in hand before we can progress to any meaningful dialogue and planning.
Of course, another way of looking at this is to view publishing as increasingly a female profession. After all, if 75 per cent or more of the new intake are women, it follows that men are being squeezed out of the system. The question will be not can women make it to the top, but can men hang on in the book business?
This feminist optimism is all very nice, but surely the fact that the men are moving out just means that publishing is becoming ever less prestigious and relevant, and ever worse-paid in comparison with other professional options? It happened with teaching.
You seem to be implying that only men are able to work in 'prestigious and relevant' industries, in fact that they are prestigious and relevant purely because of their dominance by men. So by the workforce becoming more female orientated, publishing is losing its prestige and relevance. Is this meant to be as sexist as it comes across?
You also seem to be implying that teaching lost its prestige and relevance. I can think of few professions more relevant than teaching.
UK mean income for males age 35 - 39 is about £32k, for women only £21k - I'm afraid this goes some way towards explaining why a generally-lower-paying industry such as ours is female-skewed.
Many in publishing would like to see a more equal gender balance - but to do that, we frankly have to reward our employees better.
Rubbish, this world is greedy and intolerant. No one will agree to equal pay, it is easier to use a female pseudonym. I manged to be a #no.1 best selling fiction author with The Sun Sharer. No one helped me, and that is the point. 'Dog eat dog'. And next year I will do the same with The Ebb and Flow in my real name David Edwards. A male name hiding a woman deep inside. As I say, rubbish Mr.Cox.
Frankly mate it sounds as though you have a screw loose.
Women dominate "rising stars" list in a female-dominated industry...sorry, but where's the story?
I would be interested to discover the career paths of the male top brass mentioned - have they worked their way up from the bottom or crossed over from other industries? I wonder because, having written more than 200 children's books in the last 14 years, and edited a children's page in a national newspaper, I have worked with scores of females but just a few males (three writers, two designers and one publicist). Are young men not interested in publishing, or is there another reason they are not being recruited? Whatever the gender bias created post-babies, there appears to be a curious gender bias operating before any such family planning plays a role.
Also, can anyone tell me why only arts graduates appear to work in children's non-fiction? I don't think I've ever worked with an editor who has a scientific education - even though the bulk of the books I work on are about science of one sort or another. It's a steep learning curve for a young editor who hasn't even got biology GCSE under her belt - sometimes my first job is to teach my editor about the subject in hand before we can progress to any meaningful dialogue and planning.