Indian women rule the publishing industry

While we hear about gender disparity in India, on almost daily basis, we rarely talk about the progress Indian women have been making in some sectors. A recent report revealed that the percentage of Indian women in politics is much higher than most of its neighbours. Another field where Indian women have been doing exceptionally well is publishing. Most of India’s top publishers have females at the top positions- a trend one rarely sees in other countries. Scroll.in spoke to some of the biggest names in publishing asking them what women in the field do differently.

Dia Kar Hazra, Bloomsbury India, feels: “Though I think it’s more about the individual than gender, women are largely better at empathy and at adapting, at not letting their ego get in the way of decisions.”

When asked why so many women in India are in senior positions in the publishing industry, Chiki Sarkar, Penguin Random house India, said that since most men in the country are in the pressure of taking up high-paying jobs; more women enter publishing, leading to a larger number of women at senior positions.  Sayoni Basu of Duckbill Books gave a shorter answer to Scroll.in- “Women are smarter? And they work for lower pay?”

Many wonder whether there’s a risk of ‘male’ interests not being addressed sufficiently. To this, most of the women working in publishing agree that stereotypes such as genres like sports and sci-fi are understood better by men- have no place in the field. Sarkar adds, “There are girls who might like ‘male’ stuff – sport, crime, etc., just as some of the best cookery editors abroad are men.”

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Scroll.in

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