So… if you’re a writer or just generally love books and you’re the kind of person who thinks a bit of equality isn’t a bad thing, then I got some good news for you.
Right, unless you happen to understand Danish, that link probably means nothing to you. But that’s why I’m here.
Despite the clickbait title (the ten best selling books all have one thing in common… sigh), the content is pretty uplifting. It turns out that last week, for the first time, the top 10 bestseller list in Denmark was made up entirely by female authors.
On top of that, Sara Omar, who’se books hold both 1st and 4th place on the list, is a Kurdish-Danish author, which is rare positive news in a time where islamophobia is spreading across the Western world, Denmark included.
I must admit that the disparity between female and male authors wasn’t something I’d given a lot of thought until I went to the American Writers Museum in Chicago in 2018, where I was lucky enough to attend the Fearless Women in Science Fiction seminar by Mary Robinette Kowal, Sue Burke, and Tessa Gratton.
I was shocked (though not really surprised) to learn that while women constitute the majority of fiction readers and have for a long time made up around half, if not more, of the fiction writing community, they’d yet to achieve equality whether you measure that in writing awards or income. (It’s not a coincidence that J.K. Rowling’s publisher recommended that she choose a gender-neutral pen name.)
And when people did speak up and pushed for equality and improved representation for under-represented gender, sexual, and ethnic groups within the publishing world, we ended up with massive pushbacks like the Sad Puppies trying to take over the Hugo Awards. (I’m not even going to try to link that stuff. You can google it if you want to know more about that whole crazy meltdown.)
I’m not saying that having the publishing industry be dominated by women is any better than it being dominated by men. But seeing as 90% of the money and awards tended to go to straight, white males until very recently, it’s nice to see signs that the push for diversity is having some effect. I think it’ll result in a broader array of stories being published, making for more interesting reading experiences. I also firmly believe that more equal opportunites for people in general will make the world a better place.
Toby Backman 