Gender

For nearly two decades, I have been speaking about the ways adult gatekeepers encourage girls to read books about boys but discourage, prevent, or even shame boys from reading about girls. A couple of years ago, a helpful industry professional let me know that gendered reading wasn't an issue anymore. "We've moved past that, you don't need to keep talking about it."

Author Lionel Shriver has said literary prizes just for women are "problematic", while calling International Women's Day "creepy" at an event to mark the occasion.

The 2005 Orange Prize winner also said it would be more "meaningful" for her to win the Man Booker Prize than the Women's Prize for Fiction.

Lee and Low is a children's book publisher that specializes in cultural diversity. And in its survey of diversity issues in U.S. publishing, the company has handed us a much-needed chance to discuss something healthily difficult: the issue of gender in the publishing workforce.

"I read letter after letter from well-meaning, perfectly nice men and women who list reams of writers they admire, without apparently noticing that the writers they are listing are all of one gender," wrote Davis-Goff in the Irish Times. "If a writer lists two influences and they both happen to be male - well, fair enough.  Read more