For what it's worth, I looked up the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Nebula award winners in the novel category for the last ten years. (Too much trouble for me to go through and record all the various short fiction awards -- and besides I assume we are talking about books here, since hardly anyone discusses short fiction on these boards anyway.)
Hugo Award
Half have gone to women.
World Fantasy Award
Six out of ten years women won this award, although McKillip tied with Graham Joyce. However, counting McKillip, the last four years have seen a woman taking home the award.
Nebula Award
Six out of the last ten years a woman won this award.
The Hugo award is voted on by members of the WorldCon, which typically boasts between 4000-7000 members.
The World Fantasy award is a juried award, although members of the convention vote in two of the nominees.
The Nebula is awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (1200+ members).
Make of these figures what you will, but it only causes me to wonder, even more than I did before, where the perception comes from that the SF/Fantasy genre is a male preserve, or that men write better SF or Fantasy than women.
(Oh, and the name that appears most often as a winner in the novel category for these major awards over the last ten years: Lois McMaster Bujold.)
Hugo Award
Half have gone to women.
World Fantasy Award
Six out of ten years women won this award, although McKillip tied with Graham Joyce. However, counting McKillip, the last four years have seen a woman taking home the award.
Nebula Award
Six out of the last ten years a woman won this award.
The Hugo award is voted on by members of the WorldCon, which typically boasts between 4000-7000 members.
The World Fantasy award is a juried award, although members of the convention vote in two of the nominees.
The Nebula is awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (1200+ members).
Make of these figures what you will, but it only causes me to wonder, even more than I did before, where the perception comes from that the SF/Fantasy genre is a male preserve, or that men write better SF or Fantasy than women.
(Oh, and the name that appears most often as a winner in the novel category for these major awards over the last ten years: Lois McMaster Bujold.)