This article on Jezebel about what happened to a writer who submitted her novel proposal under her own name and then a male pseudonym is another reason everyone involved with books needs to count, and then tot up numbers at the end of the day/week/month/year—depending on your temporal focal length. (I talk about this at length in the just-launched Seattle Review of Books.)
And here are two new pie charts, following on from my previous post about what kind of book wins awards, this time on the most recent 15 years of the IMPAC Dublin Award and the Costa Novel Award.
As you can see, the IMPAC, one of the richest book prizes in the world, given for “excellence in world literature,” gives zero out of the last 15 prizes to stories by women about women—but 11 to stories by men about men. Compare this to the more populist Costas, which cheerfully declare they are for “well-written, enjoyable” books: 3 go to women writing about women. In other words, no surprises: the more consciously prestigious the award, the less likely the prize is to go a woman writing about women.
More data to follow. Hopefully a lot of data.
Nicola Griffith 
Fascinating and sad at the same time….I’m part of 2nd waved feminism and now I wonder what the hell, and how long the hell it’s going to take?!
Looking forward to see what else you put up about this. Also, I don’t think I would be working for 30+ yrs as a writer in Hollywood if I were a lone woman, or part of a woman woman team. I know a few 2 women writing teams who’s careers ended after 2 yrs. I was the first woman on the radio with my own show..too too many years ago, was interviewed by all the papers and magazines as though I were a trained seal talking! The harrassment was epic, but fuck them I powered through, was nominated for prizes etc. They expected me to fail, I found out later so they would have an excuse to say women “just don’t work out”
So many women who were less lucky/pigheaded/talented/wilful/smart/privileged (pick as many as you think apply) than us didn’t make it. This is for them, and for all who follow.