Um, Women Don’t Write Big Idea Books?
With all the pre-election hoopla over here across the pond, I seem to have missed this gem by Alison Flood at The Guardian the other week, when she asked “Where are the books by women with big ideas?”. “Books like Freakonomics, defining significant cultural or economic trends with a punchy title, never seem to be produced by women. But why?”
The article quotes Julia Cheiffetz, blogging at publishing website HarperStudio, as saying, “It is hard to know whether women are better at telling stories than propagating ideas (I’m thinking of Susan Orlean, Mary Roach, Karen Abbott), or whether the intellectual audacity required to sell our hypotheses about the world simply isn’t in our genetic makeup.”
Ok, righto. Have at it, Penners. And for a nice critique, check out Feminocracy, who credits Flood for her observation that disparities in publishing have something to do with the gender disparities in both economics specifically and academia in general. But still…
Last 5 posts by Deborah Siegel
- Women's Media Center Webinar at She Writes! - June 21st, 2010
- Please forgive the momentary wonkiness! - May 11th, 2010
- MAMA W/PEN: And Now, a Word from My Editor... - May 3rd, 2010
- Take Part in the "Who's a Heroine?" Meme! - April 23rd, 2010
- GUEST POST: The Antidote to the Spinster Stigma? - April 23rd, 2010
