Sydney Poetry

A social site for poets in Sydney.

Gender Bias

So what else is new?! Sorry Adrian but this has been a point of discussion since before the anthology Mother I'm Rooted (ed Kate Jennings) came out in 1975 to the 'embarrassment' of so many...male poets?

Anyway I'm glad you brought it up because not a lot has changed in terms of editing, cliques and power. What has changed I think is the emergence of so many strong women poets—whether they are anthologized or not! N.S.

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Comment by Kate Waterhouse on March 13, 2012 at 22:01: Having gone into this in some depth while editing Motherlode: Australian Women Poets 1986-2008, which some have considered an "unnecessary" book (really), I can confirm that the contemporary anthologies offering any kind of gender balance were at that time:

2001 New Music Poets (John Leonard) Five Islands Press - 96 poets of which 48% were female

1998 Family Ties (Jenny Strauss) - 158 poets, 45% female

1998 Oxford Anthology Of Australian Verse (John Leonard) - 140 poets, 37% female

Other notable publications, many of whom claimed to be representative, fell well short of these proportions. As to what one editor may judge valuable vs another, how shall I put this, while there are not many women editors of general anthologies to assess, it appeared to us that the interests of male editors (ie what they value) differed from our own if the subject of work is at all telling. If the past is any indication, and there is a prevalence of male editors, the imbalance seems likely to continue, with the notable exceptions of John L and Bob A and others, one hopes.