1. Prologue
  2. Gender Concentration by Country (m)
  3. Analysis
    a. Equality between Male and Female Publications
    b. One-sided concentration
    c. Economic Perspective
  4. Map : Highest Female Conncentration
  5. Visualizations
  6. Bibliography


Prologue

Historically, a gender imbalance has always existed within the publication and the mass commercialization of literary works. In research by Page (2017), he discovered significant discrepancies in the publication and review of American and British literature by commercial magazines like Granta, whose publication was comprised of 65% male authors, and LRB, whose annual review of literary works was composed of 78% male authors.

Furthermore, during my work on the Writers, Readers, and Scenes: Visualizing Caribbean Literature project, I observed that many published literary works within my assigned time period of 1971–1980 were authored by men.

Thus, this encouraged me to first determine if this trend in high-male dominance in the publishing industry of Caribbean authors existed within a larger subset of the WRS project, that is, from 1961–1990, and secondly, to determine which Caribbean countries had the highest concentration of male and female authors.


Gender Concentration by Country

Author Country Count % by Male % by Female # of Male # of Female
Antigua and Barbuda 1 0 100 0 1
Argentia 1 100 0 1 0
Aruba 1 0 100 0 1
Barbados 9 89 11 8 1
Belgium 1 100 0 1 0
Belize 1 0 100 0 1
Bermuda 2 50 50 1 1
Bonaire 1 100 0 1 0
Brazil 1 100 0 1 0
British Virgin Islands 1 0 100 0 1
Canada 3 67 33 2 1
Chile 2 100 0 2 0
Cuba 34 82 18 28 6
Dominica 6 67 33 4 2
Dominica Republic 1 100 0 1 0
Ecuador 1 100 0 1 0
El Salvor 1 100 0 1 0
England 5 100 0 5 0
France 2 100 0 2 0
Grenda 1 100 0 1 0
Guadeloupe 2 50 50 1 1
Guatemala 1 100 0 1 0
Guinea 1 100 0 1 0
Guyana 14 57 43 8 6
Haiti 13 100 0 13 0
India 1 100 0 1 0
Jamaica 44 66 34 29 15
Martinique 7 86 14 6 1
Panama 1 100 0 1 0
Peru 2 50 50 1 1
Puerto Rico 1 100 0 1 0
Saint Lucia 7 86 14 6 1
Spain 4 75 25 3 1
St. Kitts and Nevis 1 100 0 1 0
Suriname 1 100 0 1 0
Trinidad and Tobago 25 68 32 17 8
United Stated 22 68 32 15 7
Venezuela 1 100 0 1 0
Total Number of Countries: 38     MALE FEMALE GRAND TOTAL
    Total Number of 151 49 200
    Total Percentage of 75.50 24.50 100

This methodology was inspired by Wholey’s (2018) research for the North Eastern University - Women Writers Project on the disparity between genres presented in literary works by men and women.

Note: During calculations of literary works with multiple authors, only the gender of the primary or first-listed author was taken into consideration so as not to skew the data.
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Analysis

Unsurprisingly, based on this data, it can be concluded that male Caribbean-authored publications from 1961 to 1980 outnumbered female authors, with 151 out of 200 authors in this dataset being male, or 75.50%.

Equality between Male and Female Publications

Equal divisions in the publication of male and female Caribbean authors, that is, a 50-50 ratio, exist solely in Bermuda, Guadeloupe, and Peru. An interesting commonality between these countries is that only two authors are represented per country in this data set.

One-sided concentration

In this project, 63.16%, or 24 out of the 38 countries, have one-sided concentrations where either 100% of the authors are male or female. Surprisingly, there is still a significant gender and authorship imbalance in these countries. Only 16.67 percent, or 4 out of the 24 nations, have a one-sided concentration of female authors, whereas 20 of the 24 countries, or 83.33 percent, have a 100 percent concentration of male authors. Furthermore, all these countries have low representation, with no more than 13 authors per country being showcased in this project.


Map : Highest Female Conncentration

Learn more about the authors and their literary works from the countries with the highest female concentration


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Economic Perspective

Article 4: CARICOM divides its 15 member states into two groups: Less Developed Countries (LDCs), which are low-income countries with substantial structural barriers to sustainable development, and More Developed Countries (MDCs), which are high-income countries.

Of the CARICOM member states, 9 of them are LDCs, but only 7 of these countries are represented in this data set. Of these islands, 71.43% have a higher male-authorship concentration, namely the countries of Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia. In contrast, only 28.57%, in particular, Antigua and Barbuda and Belize, had a higher proportion of female authors who published between 1961 and 1990.

The more developed countries (MDCs) represented in the project’s name include Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Surinme, and Trindad and Tobago. In this project, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad, in addition to Cuba and the United States, have the highest published from 1961-1990. Similarly, with the LDCs, there is a greater concentration of male authorship per country, but none of the MDCs has a higher proportion of female authorship. However, Guyana is the closest to equal division, with 57% of all publications being authored by males born in Guyana and 43% being authored by females.

Conclusion

In brief, the publication of literary works from 1961–1990 was largely limited to a very few countries, that is, MDCs and developed countries such as the United States, which is most likely due to comparatively greater access to and opportunities than other countries. Moreover, many of the less developed countries not only have a smaller publication amount but also a larger concentration of literary works were authored by males.


Visualizations

Visualizations and statistical graphics were created to make it easier for the audience to spot patterns, trends, and outliers in this large data set.

Authorship

Authorship By Country

This graph expresses a part-to-whole relationship between the birth countries of the male and female authors represented in the Gender Divide, West Indian Literature 1961-1990.

Authorship by Country

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Bibliography

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Economic Analysis. (2022, April 20). Least Developed Countries (LDCs) UN. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/least-developed-country-category.html

Wikipedia contributors. (2022, April 19). Caribbean Community. Wikipedia. Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Community