How men benefit from reading women authors
From the books we learn the worlds of others; as we read, we get an inside look at the characters’ attributes, experiences, their points of view, fears, hopes, and experiences.
Unfortunately, these valuable tools that lead to the development of much sought-after soft skills and give people insights on how to understand and communicate with people that are not exactly like them, are significantly underestimated, if not ignored, and especially by those who would need them the most.
Literature written by men is considered universal; most literature written by women is considered ‘for women only’.
Why is that and how does it hurt the whole society? Let’s take a look…
Only a fraction of men read women authors
A study by Nielsen Book Research commissioned by Mary Ann Sieghart, as part of the research for her book ‘The Authority Gap”, found that, for the 10 bestselling male authors, readership was roughly evenly divided by gender, with 55% male readers and 45% female readers.
In contrast, only 19% of the 10 bestselling female authors’ readers were male, compared to 81% female.
Men also read fewer books with female protagonists than do women—a problem compounded by the fact that fewer books feature female protagonists overall. For example, in the top 100 children’s books, male characters (human and nonhuman) in leading roles outnumber female characters two to one.
The affluence of biases against women has also led to a long list of women writers masking their gender—including recent examples, like the author of the wildly popular Harry Potter novels, Joanne Rowling, who wrote under the gender-neutral moniker J. K. Rowling.
Not reading books by and about women hurts society and the overall struggle for diversity and inclusion. If female book characters are portrayed largely through the gaze of men, or with a male lens, this can reinforce a lack of understanding of, and discrimination against, underrepresented and non-male groups. Reading books, especially fiction, is related to social acuity, helping readers learn about other people and comprehend their motivations.
Men read less… in general
According to a compilation by Delloitte Insights of several different studies, there is a consistent gender gap, through ages, educational levels and countries, proving that women read more than men.
Several converging factors are likely behind the disparity. Reading habits are often formed in childhood and adolescence, and studies show that fathers are less likely to read themselves, which means that at a formative stage, children are less exposed to male reading role models.
According to the same source, fathers of sons are also less likely to read to them than fathers of girls. In addition, men and teenage boys are more likely than women and teenage girls to choose other entertainment activities, such as gaming, over reading.
Books increase empathy and highly sought after soft skills
Multiple studies also show that reading fiction books increases empathy and understanding of others more than reading nonfiction. Research suggests that reading literary fiction is an effective way to enhance the brain’s ability to keep an open mind while processing information, a necessary skill for effective decision-making. Reading also develops other capabilities, like emotional intelligence, empathy, and imagination—which are in high demand in the workplace and will likely be critical to employability in the future of work.
Reading books tends to involve two cognitive processes that could create a survival advantage. First, it promotes “deep reading,” which is a slow, immersive process; this cognitive engagement occurs as the reader draws connections to other parts of the material, finds applications to the outside world, and asks questions about the content presented.
Book readers live longer
Studies show that people who read books not only live longer than people who don’t read books, but also have a longevity advantage compared to those who read newspapers or magazines. Book readers also experienced a 20% reduction in risk of mortality over the 12 years of follow up compared to non-book readers.
Book reading provides a survival advantage, and that this advantage is mediated by cognitive engagement. To determine if the advantage is specific to the immersive nature of book reading, we also examined whether there is a survival advantage to reading periodicals (i.e., newspapers and magazines). Cognitive engagement might also occur while reading thought-provoking periodicals, however this engagement is more likely to occur when reading books due to the tendency of book authors to present themes, characters and topics in greater length and depth.
Lockdowns boosting reading
Data shows that the pandemic made people rediscover the joy of a good book; UK consumer book sales climbed 7% in 2020, while in the U.S. printed books recorded a 8.2% gain, the largest annual increase since 2010.
Moonshot News’ books proposals
For all the aforementioned reasons and to no one’s surprise, Moonshot News is every Friday proposing a book, written by a woman to be read by all.
Browse through, pick one and enjoy!
Moonshot News is an independent European news website for all IT, Media and Advertising professionals, powered by women and with a focus on driving the narrative for diversity, inclusion and gender equality in the industry.
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