Action Alert | The New Yorker Gender Tally: 2021 Year in Review
The New Yorker Gender Tally looks at The New Yorker magazine contributors by gender. It got fully underway in 2014. If you’re new to this project, here’s what you need to know:
Women are always listed first, followed by men. People who are non-binary were added to the Gender Tally in 2019. A count for non-binary is not included if no people who are non-binary are reported. It appears after the count for men. A fourth number represents work by studios, collaborations of different genders, or my inability to confirm gender.
Gender is determined by name and verifying pronouns.
Previous summaries by year are available at jessicaesch.com.
David Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker since 1998. Deirdre Foley-Mendelssohn was named deputy editor in May 2020 (a position Pam McCarthy held since 1995). Dorothy Wickenden has been executive editor since 1996.
Takeaways
My timing for tracking gender representation in The New Yorker now appears destined. I was a new subscriber in 2012 and noticed that more men were being published in the “Letters to the Editor” section. The next year I also looked at who created the covers. In 2014, I dove all in, tallying the major sections of the magazine and adding new categories to match my curiosity as the years added up.
The results: that first full year wasn't pretty. I watched the gender gap expand with every issue. Men far outpaced women in all nine categories tracked in 2014. I learned quickly the futility of reading too much into fluctuations between issues or even between months. I saw ground gained could be lost and vice versa. The results over the years, however, showed steady improvement and this Gender Tally captured that transition.
People ask what success looks in terms of gender equality in The New Yorker. My response is that you have to see how the numbers shake out over time, year by year. What a wonderful win it would be if no one gender always prevailed.
Should you be curious about the numbers prior to 2014, The New Yorker archives are a mere subscription away. Be that change! (I’m happy to share my spreadsheet to ease your way.)
Read on for my analysis of each section, starting with the most iconic part of this magazine.
Covers
Françoise Mouly has been the covers editor since 1993.
Women logged 12 covers in 2021, the most since this tally began. There were 48 issues in 2021, and women illustrated a quarter of them. For perspective, women created three covers in 2014 and four in 2015.
Christoph Niemann had the most covers in 2021 (five). Barry Blitt, Diana Ejaita, and Mark Ulriksen each had three. Only one other woman has had three covers in a year since the Gender Tally got underway: Malika Favre in 2019 and 2016.
Twenty women have illustrated covers since 2014 and three had six or more during this time: Malika Favre (12), Roz Chast (8), and Gayle Kabaker (6). This same span has 62 men illustrating covers with 20 creating six or more covers each. As for repeat performers, Kadir Nelson and Christoph Niemann each have 20 covers. Mark Ulriksen has 23. No one comes close to Barry Blitt’s 48 in this time period.
NOTE: The New Yorker celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2015 with a double issue featuring nine different covers. The 2015 Gender Tally included all those covers (55 total for the year) and two of these anniversary covers were by women (Roz Chast and Anita Kunz). This old news might seem irrelevant but it’s important because it skews the overall numbers as well as artist totals. There are typically 47 or 48 issues a year.
Illustrations
Christine Curry has been the illustration editor since 1983.
Cue the trumpets! Women had more illustrations than men published in 2021 (211 vs. 206 by men), a first since the TNY Gender Tally’s inception). This represents half of all illustrations, a high point as well. More good news: the percentage of illustrations by women has increased every year since 2014 (14%).
There were 31 more illustrations published in 2021 (426 vs. 395 in 2020). In 2020, the total number of illustrations in The New Yorker dipped below 400 for the first time since 2014 (358). Time will tell if these last two years are outliers because of the global pandemic since there were 509 illustrations in 2019, a Gender Tally record.
Four illustrations by artists who are non-binary and five by mixed-gender collaborations or studios were published in 2021. While the number of collaborations remained the same as 2020, three fewer illustrations by artists who are non-binary were published in 2021.
In 2018, I began tallying illustrations and photographs in the “Goings On About Town” section separately after noticing that more illustrations by women were appearing there. The almost perfect women-men gender split (49%) in 2018 increased to 61% the following year (126 of 205) and climbed to 67% in 2021 (75 of 112). While such high percentages are worthy of cheer, pandemic closure of many New York City venues shrunk the number of illustrations in this section. There were 112 illustrations in this section in 2021, six fewer than 2020 (vs. 205 in 2019). Two illustrations in this section were by artists who are non-binary (vs. six in 2020 and three in 2019).
While overall illustrations for feature articles continued their downward trajectory in 2021 (85 vs. 106 in 2018 when this category was added to the Gender Tally), the percentage of illustrations by women in this section climbed to 34%. This is a nice bump from 27% and 28% in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Lastly, “Spots” are the series of illustrations spread throughout the magazine that accommodate page layout. 19 of the 48 issues containing Spots illustrations in 2021 were illustrated by women (40%), a Gender Tally record. This was a big shift from 2020 when women illustrated 13 of 47 (28%) and light years beyond the three by women in 2014 (6%).
Photographs
Joanna Milter has been the photo editor since 2015.
Photographs were tallied for the first time in 2018 thanks to Daniella Zalcman and her Women Photograph project. Of the 203 photographs published in 2021, 78 were by women (38%) and five were by a photographer who is non-binary. The magazine included slightly more photographs overall than 2020 (203 vs. 192).
The number of main photographs accompanying feature stories was on par with 2020 (76 vs. 75, respectively). The percentage of photographs by women in this section dipped to 29% (22 of 76) from a high of 35% in 2020 (26 of 75).
More photographs by women were included in “Goings On About Town” in 2021 (39 vs. 33 in 2020). Women shot 43% of the photographs in this subset in 2021, a Gender Tally record. In 2018, the first year this subset was tallied, women shot a quarter of the photos (23 of 91). Three of the 91 photos in 2021 were taken by a photographer who is non-binary (vs. one each in 2020 and 2019).
Photo Illustrations
Photo illustrations are not common in The New Yorker. They are photographs that have been manipulated to create something new. Nine photo illustrations were published in 2021, the same as 2020. Women composed two of those photo illustrations (22%) and an artist who is non-binary composed one. A reminder of the importance of not declaring success based on one year’s final tally: women composed five of nine photo illustrations in 2020 (54%).
Humor and Cartoons
Emma Allen has been the humor and cartoon editor since May 2017.
Of all sections of the magazine, the cartoons hold my greatest focus. I look here first and feel the gender imbalance most. The total number and percentages of cartoons by women have improved over time.
Happy news for cartoon lovers is that more cartoons were published in 2021 (700). This is welcome relief since 2020 issues included only 682, the lowest total cartoons published since the Gender Tally began in 2014 (664). However, fewer cartoons by women were published in 2021 (254 vs. 276 in 2020) and the percentage by women headed south as well (36% vs. 40% in 2020). This marked the first slide since numbers started to climb in 2015 (108). Allen’s first full year at the helm in 2018 included 252 cartoons by women. In 2014, there were only 112 cartoons by women (15%).
In 2021, two cartoonists who are non-binary had three cartoons each published: Ellie Black and Madeline Horwath. Since 2019, three cartoonists who are non-binary have published 18 cartoons: Black (11), Horwarth (4), and Lillie Harris (3).
Eight cartoonists who are women had cartoons in 10 or more issues in 2021, and 17 were in five or more issues. Fifteen of the 49 cartoonists who are women published in 2021 appeared only once. In 2014 and 2015, only 12 cartoonists who are women were published in the magazine.
Once again, Roz Chast continued her reign as the most prolific cartoonist who is a woman. Her cartoons were published in 35 of 2021’s 48 issues. If a cartoon by Chast is not featured it often means she either illustrated the cover or has a stand-alone illustration elsewhere in the magazine. In 2021, she had one cover and three larger illustrations classified as Sketchbook or Sketchpad. Chast was only absent from nine issues.
Gaining ground on Chast is Liana Finck who appeared in 30 of 2021’s 48 issues. Chast and Finck have created nearly a third of the 1,585 cartoons by women since 2014. Only four other cartoonists who are women have published 20 or more cartoons in a single year since the Gender Tally began in 2014: Pia Guerra and Carolita Johnson (23 in 2018); Barbara Smaller (23 in 2014); and Amy Hwang (21 in 2019).
Allen’s arrival as editor coincided with a rise in cartoon collaborations across genders. (This Gender Tally logs same-sex collaborations with the respective gender.) Ten of 2021’s 700 cartoons were collaborations between women and men (vs. 8 in 2020 and 15 in 2019). In 2018, there were two.
If you want to learn more about The New Yorker cartoonists who are women, Liza Donnelly’s updated and revised Very Funny Ladies just hit shelves everywhere. Highly recommended.
Lastly, there were 43 installments in the 2021 humor section, “Shouts and Murmurs.” Women penned 9 of the 43 (21%), the lowest percentage in the history of this Gender Tally. The previous low was 27% in 2014.
Talk of the Town
Susan Morrison replaced Lizzie Widdicombe as the “Talk of the Town” editor in 2019.
“Talk of the Town” lead stories are tracked separately because they are opinion pieces that respond to current events and feel more significant. In 2021, 26 of the 48 lead articles were by women (54%). This marked the second time in the span of this tally that women wrote more lead articles than men (58% in 2019).
The number of non-lead pieces by women declined for the third time in 2021 (68 vs. 77 in 2020 and 84 in 2019). This is a sad stretch since women wrote more non-lead pieces than men in 2018 (97 of 191), the first and only time in the Gender Tally’s scope.
Features
Dorothy Wickenden has been the executive editor since 1996.
The gender balance of the features, or the main articles, in 2021 was in line with the previous three years (40% vs. 41% in 2020 and 2019, and 42% in 2018). This is a step up from the previous plateau (37% in 2017, 38% in 2016, and 36% in 2015).
Fiction
Deborah Treisman has been the fiction editor since 2002.
Women and men each wrote 25 of the 51 short stories published in 2021. One story was written by a writer who is non-binary. This is the second highest percentage since 2017 when women wrote 26 of the 49 short stories (53%).
“Briefly Noted” is the sidebar in the back of each issue that contains short book reviews. In 2021, 103 of the 189 reviewed books were written by women. After three consecutive years where more books written by women were reviewed, half of the 184 reviewed books in 2020 were written by men. Two were by writers who are non-binary.
In 2017, I added the gender of translators in the “Briefly Noted” section to the Gender Tally. In 2021, 11 of the 19 reviewed books that were translated were by women (58%). NOTE: This was the lowest total number of reviewed books that are translated since the category was first tallied in 2017 (29).
Poetry
Kevin Young has been the poetry editor since 2017.
Ah, poetry. This section has sustained me since it was added to the Gender Tally in 2015. It remained so in 2021 where 52 of the 96 poems were written by women (54%) and two were by writers who are non-binary.
In 2019, women wrote 54 of the 97 poems published in The New Yorker (56%) and the tally rested at 54% for the three years prior.
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📣🖊️ The pen is mightier than the sword! Writer, illustrator, and long-time #GenderAvenger Jessica Esch releases the 8th annual New Yorker Gender Tally! If you love data as much as we do, there’s lots to unpack in this report.