Business Books Are Still A Symbol Of Male Power

Introduction

The business books industry has been and is still dominated by male authors. Actual published books of about 300 titles would normally comprise of two-third male authors, and one-third female authors. Moreover, treatment for published titles with women authors are priced lower than men, and get lesser attention from publishers and agents. To add fuel to the fire, women’s work is reviewed less often (and mostly reviewed by men as well), and there are only a few who get nominated, much less take home a literary award.

Gender Discrimination

Gener gap in book publishing has ironically been in favor of men despite being a female-driven industry. Men are paid more with higher bonuses, and promotions are always geared to support male authors. It can further be described by the term, “fetishisation of men in publishing” when men are paid much better than women to entice them to dominate their feminine counterparts. In some surveys to raise awareness in the gender pay gap, 84% of the participants have been concerned about a starking difference of pay in their respective companies. The survey was composed of 87% women, 11% of men and 2% others. This ignited frustration especially when employers opted to turn a blind eye on the issue.

Women authors have been experiencing rampant discrimination despite being experts in their field of practice. The mere lack of promotion from programmes and accelerators to promote book writing to women, cause a huge drop in women-authors publishing their work. In turn, most are not able to develop confidence despite the recognition of their excellence. At one point, to avoid the disparity, women have begun using male pseudonyms just to pass prejudices.

In traditional publishing, authors go through gatekeepers: editors, literary agents to get their books published. These gatekeeps decide which authors to publish, and sort their books into particular classifications. Discrimination blatantly happens when these gatekeeps stereotype and reject and present them with different alternatives.

Allocative Discrimination

In publishing, this kind of discrimination is manifested in when differential sorting of books per author is transformed into gender-based genres.

Valuative Discrimination

This is manifested when publishers systematically devalue female-authored books relative to male-authored ones. In turn, female authors receive lower investment in the production and distribution, and tagged with lower selling price and prestige.

In Promoting Women Authors

Why it’s important to encourage women authors:

Renown women writers have struggled to get themselves out in the spotlight. Shortchanging women authors today will only continue to weaken their authority. Throughout the years, despite a large number of female writers, strong resistance continues to linger to promote men. In the publishing industry, men and women deserve an equal voice. To fully understand and be informed, readers should learn from the experiences of both genders.

To promote women authors, female writers should learn how to speak up and take the aggressive route. Their male counterparts should also take the reigns in popularizing works of women. As the industry leans on men’s influence and authority, a show of support to the minority should consciously be rolled out.

Conclusion

Great minds fall on great people regardless of gender. The business books publication industry as a means of efficient information sharing to the academe and practitioners, should break the stigma of women being lesser beings of lesser credibility in the society. In a data-driven world, all experiences are significant enough to mold, teach, and inspire notwithstanding the gender of the sharer. Books should be celebrated because it does an excellent deal in instigating change, development, and progress in business. And it doesn’t matter whether it was written by a man or a woman.