How Irish Poetry Is Addressing the Gender Imbalance in Publishing

In an article published at Irish Times, Deirdre Falvey assesses Irish poetry-publishers' gender issues by taking a cold, hard look at the numbers. Falvey admits that there's "something slightly unpoetic about counting poems and doing statistical analysis of their gender representation. It’s a bit never-mind-the-quality-feel-the-width." From there: 

...When I mention gender balance to an established poet who reads widely, he remarks “If I read a poem I don’t consider the gender of the writer but the quality of the poem.” As it should be; but still, everything exists in a context. And the context has an impact, even unconsciously. Especially unconsciously.

Movements like Waking the Feminists in theatre and Sounding the Feminists in music have highlighted striking unconscious gender bias that’s had a long-standing impact on what creative work thrives. Last autumn’s publication of a MEAS (Measuring Equality in the Arts Sector) report, Gender in Poetry Publishing in Ireland, 2008-2017, by Dr Kenneth Keating and Dr Ailbhe McDaid, was the first quantitative survey of gender balance and the role of Arts Council funding in a decade of Irish poetry publishing.

Since then there’s been debate among readers, editors, and scholars of Irish poetry, as well as poets, about the stark findings. The survey looked at 29 presses’ output (poetry volumes, pamphlets/chapbooks, anthologies, and prose by poets or on poetry) by 1,187 authors. Of these 743 were male, 441 female (plus one non-binary, and two unknown), giving a troubling headline of 63 per cent male and 37 per cent female poets published, with Irish poetry presses showing “a clear imbalance in favour of male authors”.

Read on at the Irish Times.