I specify *my* slush pile because I don’t track the numbers for Eric, Chris, or Sarah’s slush.
As an assistant editor, it is not my job to ensure gender, racial, or ideological parity in science fiction, fantasy, or horror. This is a point on which I am unwilling to bend. It is my job instead to find good stories to recommend to the editor. As a slush reader I am not concerned with equality, per se; Quality alone is king.
However, I recognize that my own biases may operate to alter my perception of what is Quality. So I try to recognize my biases and not let them come into contact with my judgment. It’s pretty much all any of us can do to be impartial—studied self-examination. Like I said to someone once, I find value in placing my unicorns on the altar of self-examination and cutting them open to make sure they aren’t zombie robots.
Here are my percentages by gender and genre. The period from which the numbers were obtained runs from February 2010 to last month (May 2011). The chart only takes into account submissions where gender could be determined by name, and where the submission was identified as Science Fiction, Fantasty, or Horror.
| Genre | Gender | Total Received | Percentage of Total | Recommendation Rate (Percentage) |
| Fantasy | Female | 65 | 38 | 23 |
| Fantasy | Male | 104 | 62 | 22 |
| Horror | Female | 1 | 33 | 0 |
| Horror | Male | 2 | 67 | 50 |
| Science Fiction | Female | 51 | 25 | 18 |
| Science Fiction | Male | 153 | 75 | 30 |
Hopefully, my math is sound.
Looking at the rate that I recommend science fiction written by authors I identified as female versus the authors I identified as male gives me pause; a 12% difference is not insignificant to me. However, considering that male authors submitted 3 times as many science fiction pieces, I’m cautiously optimistic that there’s more to the story than the idea that I’m a raging chauvanist demon hellboar.
As Edmund said on Magical Words, I cannot control what comes into my slush pile. In order to determine if the percentages we’re seeing at IGMS are abnormal, I invite slush readers at other mags to lay their unicorns on the table and let us compare anatomies.
That said, I think the numbers support the notion that genders receive fair treatment at Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show. The thing that we’re looking for—you know, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that what every editor in the field is looking for—are good stories.
Send some now.
--Scott M. Roberts
Asst. Editor, InterGalactic Medicine Show
16 comments:
A couple friends pointed out to me that the last column is a little ambiguous. Allow me to clarify:
The last column represents the percentage of stories recommended for publication for that gender/genre.
One of the same friends that pointed out the ambiguity of the last column of numbers also pointed out that the comparison of submissions numbers does not provide a valid excuse for the disparity between the percentage of recommendations.
To which I say...hello, unicorn. Climb up here on this nice, warm table...
What I said was, "Are you saying that the 18% vs. 30% is okay because of the 1:3 submission ratio? The way you are calculating those percentages doesn't lead me to that conclusion since they are gender specific."
I admire that you're willing to put these numbers out at all. Let the vivisection commence!
The 12% discrepancy stands there, slobbering on me, begging for a rationale.
And as much as I'd like to provide something that didn't make me look biased, I'm having a hard time believing I should. Because 12% ain't a little bit.
The main questions I'm asking myself are:
1)What can I do to make my slush reading truly blind? Currently, I copy story details into a database before reading the story. I'll assume for the moment that some unconscious part of me is biased against female gendered names, and do my best to page down to the meat of the story without looking at the name. (All I get is the manuscript, not the cover email)
2)If it is bias, is it mixed up with my perception of genre ability? The numbers for Fantasy recommendations are even.
3) Is it bias? I am not certain. I keep track of the reasons I give for rejecting/recommending each story I receive. (Or most of them, anyway) Most of the reasons I give for rejection seem...reasonable.
Now that the problem is on my radar, I'll be watching it.
It's not really a 12% discrepancy. You give 67% more recommends to science fiction pieces written by males than by females. (Or 40% fewer recommends to pieces written by females, if you'd rather look at it that way. Either way, you ought to be comparing these numbers to each other, and not to 100%, which would be a ridiculous recommend rate.)
Anyway, I doubt you look at the name and unconsciously decide to be predisposed against something because the author is female.
An easy implementation (in my opinion) for your first question would be if each of the three of you separated your stories from their authors' names, creating new files while saving the author's information somewhere, and then rotated your slush piles. I would consider it pretty honorable if you guys took this step to ensure impartiality. (This would also guard against bias against ethnic names, natch.)
That said, it would surprise me little if your stats came out pretty similar. It's not totally implausible to suggest that women are more likely to write some subtypes of science fiction than men are and vice versa, allowing for exceptions, and maybe the science fiction that is more common among male writers is the science fiction that resonates more with you as a reader.
I would also suggest that the total numbers you're dealing with are small enough that it's very likely not a solid statistical sampling.
Inspired by this post, I performed a similar tabulation of submissions and acceptances by gender over at my magazine Arcane, for all the enlightenment it may provide.
http://www.arcanemagazine.com/gender-in-the-slush-pile/
This poor unicorn. The more I cut into the numbers, the more I'm just...disappointed.
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