Gender Disparity on Convention Panels

[alittlebriton]

At the recent SFX Weekender, a convention with around 6000 attendees, author China Miéville stepped down from a panel because there weren’t any women on it. Paul Cornell followed up by publicly announcing that he would step down from any panel if he felt there was a gender imbalance to make space for a female author. “So, this year, I've decided

Comments

[annelyle]

Firstly, I have to say that my own publishers are in a bit of a bind - they do have a majority of male authors at the moment, and all their female authors except me live outside the UK and therefore rarely make it to UK cons. And to be fair to SFX, they did put me on a panel, even though my book isn't out yet.

However I think that, more generally, women are just not as good at putting themselves forward for these things, perhaps for fear of being branded as pushy and strident. Which is a pity. Or maybe they've seen too many lone women on panels and don't want to be in that position. I think we need to address the problem from our end as well, by being unconfrontationally assertive and setting a good example to other women writers.

[e_moon60]

The argument that the women writers aren't as well known, or as popular with the audience rests on a reality that women have not been allowed the exposure given to the men. That includes critical attention (reviews of equal length and insight) and opportunities for public appearance in venues that indicate the writer is being taken seriously. Writers become popular speakers not only because of the popularity of their books, but because they've had a chance to show themselves in public--be seen to be taken seriously, be heard on panels