At the 'Free Word' weblog Sophie Mayer wonders Where are the women in translation ? -- meaning: why do so many more books by male, rather than female authors get (historically, as well as currently) translated (as, as far as the translating itself goes, women seem quite well represented).
One of the reasons the complete review has such an abysmal M/F ratio regarding the sex of authors of books under review is because the focus here is on fiction in translation, and there's simply a lot less of it available that's written by women. (That's obviously not the only reason -- the ratio is even worse than could be blamed solely on that -- but it is certainly a contributing factor.)
The Translation Database at Three Percent offers a good rough tally of what new works have been translated this (and in recent) years in the US; I haven't done a head-count yet, but I suspect female representation is, as usual, well (or, more likely: horribly) under 50 per cent. I'm not sure sex-specific prizes are the way to go to remedy this (or, more reasonably, to improve the) situation, but it's certainly a disturbing fact worth pointing out (as is pointing to publishers whose lists are predominantly male, as is the case with several of my favored ones ...).
One of the reasons the complete review has such an abysmal M/F ratio regarding the sex of authors of books under review is because the focus here is on fiction in translation, and there's simply a lot less of it available that's written by women. (That's obviously not the only reason -- the ratio is even worse than could be blamed solely on that -- but it is certainly a contributing factor.)
The Translation Database at Three Percent offers a good rough tally of what new works have been translated this (and in recent) years in the US; I haven't done a head-count yet, but I suspect female representation is, as usual, well (or, more likely: horribly) under 50 per cent. I'm not sure sex-specific prizes are the way to go to remedy this (or, more reasonably, to improve the) situation, but it's certainly a disturbing fact worth pointing out (as is pointing to publishers whose lists are predominantly male, as is the case with several of my favored ones ...).