“Har killarna lämnat litteraturen?” En kvantitativ analys av genus bland samtida svenska författare och förlagsarbetare

In recent years, Swedish media have reported a feminization of the literary field. The culture sections of newspapers highlight that boys and men are reading increasingly less, women are taking over the writing profession and publishing houses’ editorial ranks are dominated by women. “The entire Swedish book industry has been feminized”, Åsa Beckman summarizes the situation in a column in Dagens Nyheter (27/11/2021). However, much of the evidence cited in these articles is rather anecdotal. In addition, there are voices that contest the narrative, arguing that “the rumours of men’s death in literature are slightly exaggerated” (Länstidningen Södertälje, 30/01/2020).There is thus a need for a more systematic review of the situation. How is gender distributed across different roles in the literary field, and can this be regarded as a feminization? Drawing on theories of vertical and horizontal gender segregation (Berkers, Verboord & Weij, 2016; Halldén, 2014), this article explores the gender distribution among literary authors and publishers, in order to shed a light on the levels of feminisation, as well as possible hierarchical differences between men and women in the literary world.