The latest Code4Lib journal had an editorial addressing the gender balance of c4lj authors. That sounded like fun, so I have replicated the analysis on LITA’s journal, Information Technology and Libraries. (With thanks to the LITAns who made it open access as of volume 31, issue 1 – that made this much easier!)
I did author counts back through 2007, thus covering approximately the same period as c4lj’s graphs. Over this period there were 239 (nondistinct) authors of 133 articles, communications, and tutorials. (There were also editorials, presidents’ messages, and book reviews, which I excluded.) I have not replicated c4lj’s editorial board counts.
As with all counting-based exercises, I am nervous about the exclusion or erasure of non-counted types of diversity (which are important, but not always doable with the available data) and the possibility of error in gender guessing, particularly given that the graphs impose a binary that doesn’t actually represent gender reality. (Again, a data set of author names doesn’t allow for better accuracy.) So please apply lots of grains of salt and take this as an approximation.
So…what does this mean?
It’s consistent with my subjective impression that LITA is 50/50 ish …but I don’t entirely trust that subjective impression, because I know that people tend to overestimate the percentage of women once they have any visibility at all. I don’t have data on the gender breakdown of LITA membership (do you?).
And I still don’t know how I feel about 50/50, even if true. Is it good, because it represents the culture at large? Is it bad, because librarianship is 80% female? Is it good, because it’s less male-dominated than Code4Lib or the broader technology industry? Should I be creeped out by that, on the theory that LITA is less male-dominated because it has more of a mix of hard and soft skills, and the gender ratio tracks with that ratio? (It’s not like it isn’t obvious that the more I do code and leadership and public speaking — technical things, things that put me on a stage, things that pay well — the fewer women I see around me.) Does 50/50 mean we’re doing something right, something that points toward a possible future, or does it mean we’re tangled between poles of wrong?
And while I’m asking questions, does anyone who knows statistics want to take a stab at the shift in author gender ratios over time? Circa 2009 issues went from being generally male-dominated to generally female-dominated, but I have no idea if that’s statistically meaningful.
andromeda yelton 