GRACE GIVES THANKS TO DEBORAH TREISMAN OF THE NEW YORKER
In the calendar year of 2004, The New Yorker printed 702 articles. Of this total, 147, or 21%, were written by women (above).
67% of the 2004 reviews written by women were in the fields of fashion, television, or dance (above). No male authors wrote a review on these subjects:
Most issues of the New Yorker feature four brief book reviews. 74% of the books reviewed were by men (above). It's even worse for nonfiction: 81% of the books reviewed were by men:
This week, though, we thought we'd send a shout out to Deborah Treisman. Under her direction, the publication of short fiction at the New Yorker has--gasp!--become relatively balanced between men and women authors.
Break out the champagne before you skip town, and share a toast with us:
In 2004, 43% of the short stories at the New Yorker were written by women.Thank you, Deborah. (Under Deborah's predecessor, Bill Buford, women represented only 30% of New Yorker short stories, according to the New York Times.)
As you can see, the rest of the story at the New Yorker, however, is more of a stuff-yourself-until-you-numb-the-pain kind of a situation.
Grace Report Card:
Deborah Treisman: A
New Yorker overall: C-
And we promise: as soon as we get through our January juice fasts, we'll get cracking on the 2005 stats.
Methodology: Grace Research and Events Editor Sara Zuiderveen measured the New Yorker's column inches for the entire year for this project! Her databases would make you swoon: deepest thanks of all to Sara.
Sara notes:
"Removing the short stories from the equation, the difference in printed inches between men and women in the New Yorker jumps to 26,254, or 2,187 feet--nearly 1000 feet taller than our nearest phallic landmark, the Empire State Building."
More statistics on percentages of women writers over in Miss Grace's Remedial Math Class.