Several editors have noticed that Wikipedia has pushed women novelists off the list of “American Novelists“. Although women were few in numbers on the list, now they aren’t there are at all. Wikipedia has sent all the women under the heading, “American Women Novelists”. While the list may be long, they didn’t segregate the male authors under “American Men Novelists.”
Elissa Schappell, contributing editor for Vanity Fair, was on of the first to bring this to the attention of social media:
Women Writers take heed, you are being erased on Wikipedia. It would appear that in order to make room for male writers, women novelists (such as Amy Tan, Harper Lee, Donna Tartt and 300 others) have been moved off the “American Novelists” page and into the “American Women Novelists” category. Not the back of the bus, or the kiddie table exactly–except of course–when you google “American Novelists” the list that appears is almost exclusively men (3,387 men). The explanation on the pages is that the list of American Novelists is too long, therefore sub-categories are necessary.
Idea: What about, “American Novelists with Penises” “American Novelists Who Are Vastly Over-Rated and Over-Paid” or “American Novelists Who Aren’t Being Read But Should Be” (Here you’d find a lot of women, people of color…)
As of May 4th – a number of women have been added to the Wikipedia list of American Novelists.Â
