Two of the four largest scholarly publishers are now led by women. This is progress, but is it enough? March is Women’s History Month so it seems like the perfect time to talk about women in the academic publishing arena. The Scholarly Kitchen brought this interesting topic to our attention in their article, “Revisiting: Why Aren’t There More Women at the Top in Scholarly Publishing?“
With the exception of Elsevier, which is now almost 50/50, the leadership teams of the big four are still predominantly male. The industry overall is around 60-65% female.
Academic publishing is not alone. Many, many articles and books have been written about how few women make it to the very top of their organizations.
Things have improved in the last 20-to-30 years. But the top ranks of scholarly publishing are still predominantly male. In the world of scholarly communications we have the perfect opportunity to raise the game. After all, scholarly publishing flourishes because of the efforts and creativity of large numbers of women. Our industry also disseminates the results of research about the value of women in the workplace.
Melody K. Smith
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