Tag Archives: vida

Did you Know?

2014 VIDA Count is now available

The 2014 VIDA Count has been revealed.

Vida represents Women in Literary Arts and undertakes an annual survey to profile the gender (and now race) of contributors writing for leading literary publications.

The results of last year’s VIDA Count from 2013 caused something of a furore, so poor was the representation of women in a number of prominent journals, most notably the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books. The reactions from these publications also made headlines. This year, the organisation did three counts: the 2014 VIDA Count, the second annual Larger Literary Landscape VIDA Count (looking at smaller publications from across America) and the first annual 2014 Women of Colour VIDA Count. 

So what about the past year, have things improved? Is there anything to hope for?

Well, sort of.

Few surprises from the 2014 VIDA Count » MobyLives.

Did you Know?

‘Numbers don’t lie’: Addressing the gender gap in literary publishing

 

And it’s not the simple arithmetic that stops the heart. If you start tallying up the substance of women’s published work — whether women are writing 10,000-word feature articles, or whether they are responsible for the shorter filler pieces — it gets even more depressing. Or look at the topics that women are writing about. Frequently you’ll find that the only articles with female bylines are about marriages and sex and divorce and child care.

Vida states, “The truth is, these numbers don’t lie. But that is just the beginning of this story.”

‘Numbers don’t lie’: Addressing the gender gap in literary publishing | Need to Know.