From the ‘You can please some of the people some of the time’ file
Friday, January 8th, 2010
The announcement by Realms of Fantasy it will do a ‘Women in Fantasy” issue has opened up another round of discussion about how the under-representation of female writers in some short fiction markets can be addressed. The announcement that their August 2011 issue will feature fiction, non-fiction and art by female writers has set off a fairly wide-ranging discussion.
There’s not a lot of great data on this out there but I suspect some of the under-representation problem - though far from all - is a flow-through issue. Part of the reason female writers are under-represented in various anthologies and magazines may be that they are under-represented in the number of submissions.
And this is where I’m mostly interested in - and supportive of - the move from Realms. Announcing the issue so far in advance should encourage more female writers to submit. Hopefully that might go beyond just one issue but only time will tell.
Plenty of people are dissing the move and it’s also being conflated with a poor choice of language (which has been apologised for) when the announcement was made. But I think there’s value in it. Unlike a one-off antho, a magazine can address issues like this over time. And if this move helps redress an imbalance and encourage more submissions from a broader range of writers, all the better.
It would be an interesting data-set if Realms tracked their submissions on a gender basis this year and next year and see if the announcement has an impact on submissions. Either way, Shawna McCarthy is a great fiction editor and I’m keen to see what she’ll produce.
