A must read article that asks a very interesting question! Does it speak Gender Equality to have a Literary Award just for women writers or does it put the whole notion backwards?
The fact that there were very few women nominees in spite of having 60% women authors begs a question at the same time how/what do we gain by having literary awards just for women! What do you think? Yay or Nay to Literary Awards for Women?
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Mind and Life Matters 
I’d say ‘No’, awards for women only to my mind means women are not capable of winning if both male and female authors are included. It looks better when women come out on top when both are included. Then it’s only my thought. 🙂
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I agree it will look better if both men and women are competing for the awards, but the judging panel also needs to be fair to ensure that the content is judged based on the work and not on the gender preference.
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yes I agree with you on this point. 🙂
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Thank you kindly for the reblog – and I like that it is inviting such interesting conversation here too!
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Your most welcome! And thank you for sharing such an interesting article for us to discuss 🙂
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The other question to ask is who is deciding who gets these awards? Are the judges on the review panels equally divided between the genders? If a male dominated panel is choosing the prize winners does that skew the results toward authors that men prefer to read?
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Very valid point there, Meg! I think that’s what is happening now. In such a case it might help to have literary awards just for women writers. I believe that a solution could be to include a panel of judges with equal number of men and women writers. Probably that will help increase the number of women authors who deserve to be awarded for their work!
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That’s what I was thinking!
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On balance, I think not. I can see the attraction of having a women only award, yet I think its very existence will simply slow down and dilute the push to make the other awards fairer.
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Fair point, I guess. There will not be a progress on balance with other awards if there is one just for women!
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I fear not. The existence of a separate award sends a subtle message that says that women need their own award, because they are not good enough to win an open one.
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Well, couldn’t the subtle message also be perceived as they need an award of their own because they are not given their due for all the other ones.
Here’s some interesting statistics about the Pulitzer:
From 1917 to 1947, the committee awarded 27 prizes in the novel category, but only 12 went to women. After 1948, Sixty Pulitzer Prizes in fiction have been awarded. The final count for women fiction winners overall: 18. Ouch! Does not really speak balance, does it?
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It certainly doesn’t. I’m just not quite sure of the way forward. I see the arguments on both sides, but wonder more how those arguments are perceived generally and more widely.
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I would have to say no. I prefer prizes for genre and let the star author win.
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That does make sense but do you think most women authors are getting the recognition they deserve?
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Probably not. When I finished my first manuscript, I was told to use my initials on the book cover because the majority of readers would skip over women titles. I’d make a sad face it I could. Question to you. If you were in my shoes, would you redo your book covers with your full name?
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Honestly, I don’t know. I guess it would depend on the reason, if I used initials because I was hoping to not give away my gender to the readers, then I guess I would keep it as is.
If my reason is anonymity then I would rather use a pen name.
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It was the first reason.
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