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there are women here today
Feb. 11th, 2015 01:37 pmA followup to my post tracking the percentage of women receiving Hugo nominations for fiction.
I had noted that, following low numbers in the decade of the 2000s, the numbers shot up in 2010, and went above 50% in 2011-13, with a still-high 39% in 2010 and 2014.
In conversation,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wild_irises suggested that the rise may have been due to Racefail, which Geek Feminism Wiki defines as "a lengthy and varied discussion about race in Science Fiction Fandom that began in early 2009."
The date is important. Racefail made minorities, and women, more aware that they could have a voice in genre-defining matters like Hugo nominations - and more desirous of doing it - by joining Worldcons, even as supporting members, and casting ballots.
Did they increase their participation in significant numbers? Well, somebody did. The Hugo Awards site gives the number of nomination ballots in each category for 8 of the last ten years, and here's the numbers for the four fiction categories for those years, plus the total number of nominating ballots received, when available.
See the steady rise in every category since 2009? There's power in numbers. Part of that increase is due to the decision to allow members of the previous and next worldcons to nominate, but I don't know when that took effect.
I had noted that, following low numbers in the decade of the 2000s, the numbers shot up in 2010, and went above 50% in 2011-13, with a still-high 39% in 2010 and 2014.
In conversation,
wild_irises suggested that the rise may have been due to Racefail, which Geek Feminism Wiki defines as "a lengthy and varied discussion about race in Science Fiction Fandom that began in early 2009."The date is important. Racefail made minorities, and women, more aware that they could have a voice in genre-defining matters like Hugo nominations - and more desirous of doing it - by joining Worldcons, even as supporting members, and casting ballots.
Did they increase their participation in significant numbers? Well, somebody did. The Hugo Awards site gives the number of nomination ballots in each category for 8 of the last ten years, and here's the numbers for the four fiction categories for those years, plus the total number of nominating ballots received, when available.
Novel Novella Novelet SS Total 2005 424 249 215 271 546 2006 430 243 207 278 2008 382 220 243 270 483 2009 639 337 373 448 2010 864 2011 833 407 382 515 1006 2012 958 473 506 611 1101 2013 1113 587 616 662 1343 2014 1595 847 728 865 1923
See the steady rise in every category since 2009? There's power in numbers. Part of that increase is due to the decision to allow members of the previous and next worldcons to nominate, but I don't know when that took effect.
