Stella Count 2019/20: gender parity achieved for first time
The results of the 2019 and 2020 Stella Counts (delayed due to Covid) have been announced, showing that representation of women and non-binary authors in Australian book reviews has reached parity with male counterparts for the first time since the count began in 2012.
In 2019, 53% of book reviews across 12 Australian publications were by women, with this trend increasing to 55% in 2020. These results are up from 49% in 2018, 46% in 2017 and 48% in 2016. The 12 publications surveyed in the count included major metropolitan and national newspapers, as well as online publications Books+Publishing and Sydney Review of Books, and magazines Australian Book Review (ABR), the Monthly and Australian Financial Review. The data was analysed by researchers from Monash University and The Australian National University (ANU).
In both the 2019 and 2020 Stella Counts, nine out of the 12 surveyed publications reviewed more books by women than by men, with ABR and the Australian yet to achieve gender parity. With research delayed by Covid, the Stella Count also showed the total number of books reviewed across Australian publications dropped by 15% across the two years between 2019 and 2020.
‘For the first time in the history of the Stella Count, the 2019 and 2020 data tells us that more books by women authors than by men authors are being reviewed in Australia’s book pages,’ said principal researcher Melinda Harvey, Monash University. ‘This is a milestone to be celebrated because equal access to book reviews will make a genuine difference to the lives and reputations of Australian women authors.’
According to Stella, compared to the US and UK—in which the 2019 VIDA Count revealed that only two out of 15 publications reviewed more women authors than male authors—’Australia may now have one of the most gender equitable book reviewing landscapes in the world’.
In 2019 and 2020, non-binary authors were also counted in the data for the first time, bringing the count into line with the Stella Prize, which expanded its eligibility guidelines to include non-binary authors. Using self-identification as a guide, books by non-binary authors accounted for less than 1% of the total number of reviews published.
Areas for improvement include the representation of women in longer reviews, as women authors received 55% of all reviews, but only 45% of long reviews (1000 words or more), while ‘gender siloing’—women reviewing books by women and men reviewing books by men—continues to be a trend.
‘Gender bias is insidious: peel back the layers and you find it is still in residence elsewhere,’ said ANU principal researcher Julieanne Lamond. ‘Our data shows that books authored by men remain more likely to receive the sustained attention of long book reviews than books authored by women, and that men reviewers are more likely to write them. This means that men continue to dominate the most prestigious review space in this country.’
The annual Stella Count compiles statistics showing how many books by women were reviewed in Australian publications and the gender of the reviewers. The full 2019/2020 Stella Count report can be found on the Stella website.
Category: Local news
