Penguin Books, I'm going to repay your cultural femicide with some solidarity

[Bidisha]

I was amused this week to receive a lovely surprise package from Penguin Books, which gave me 4 current books by men and 1 decades-old book by a woman, despite their spring list being chock full of excellent and diverse titles by women writers - including the much-awaited return of Marian Keyes. I wrote a tongue-in-cheek takedown of this 'gift', in which one book namechecked 63 male authors in its bibliography...and just 7 women.

www.bidisha-online.blogspot.com/2012/01/penguin-books-im-going-to-repay-your.html

[TunipTheVegemal]

good stuff.

That's good to know about Marian Keyes having another book coming out. She's wonderful (and feminist....)

[MooncupGoddess]

The great thing about Bidisha's post is that it highlights that the majority of the behind-the-scenes people who make things happen in the book/meedja/culture world are women... but the people in the spotlight are still mostly men.

My first job was at a company which, like Penguin, was owned by Pearson. We were all invited to the Pearson AGM and I vividly remember sitting in the hall amidst fellow employees who were probably 80% female. On stage was a woman - our ceo, Marjorie Scardino - surrounded by several middle-aged men in grey suits. The disparity between the gender balance of the employees and the gender balance of the top management struck me very forcibly - a key step on my Feminist Journey (TM).