A while back, we started recording the breakdown of our contributors’ genders for each print issue we published. And then we published this post in September 2013 about it. We’re interested in this, so we kept an eye on it. People are interested in this, so now we share an updated version, accurate up to June 2014. We got up to TLB19 last time; let’s see where we’re at now?

(Note: we’ve never directly asked contributors to identify their gender, nor do we believe that gender is a simple binary categorisation. The below gender breakdown activity, achieved by dividing our contributors into ‘male’ and ‘female’, simply gives us a general snapshot of the genders of our contributors, and ensures we are never forgetting to think about gender (and of course other demographic considerations) when commissioning and selecting work for publication.)

Here are the figures, presented in no particular order except rigidly reverse-chronological:

PRINT EDITION

TLB24: 23 men, 30 women

TLB23: 24 men, 20 women

TLB22: 23 men, 22 women

TLB21: 23 men, 33 women

TLB20: 23 men, 21 women

TLB19: 22 men, 24 women

TLB18: 20 men, 16 women

TLB17: 26 men, 18 women

TLB16: 18 men, 14 women

TLB15: 30 men, 25 women

TLB14: 36 men, 34 women

TLB13: 23 men, 21 women

TLB12: 24 men, 18 women

TLB11: 18 men, 16 women

TLB10: 22 men, 12 women

TLB9:  19 men, 10 women

TLB8:  15 men, 6 women

TLB7:  41 men, 17 women

TLB6:  62 men, 42 women (includes music CDs)

TLB5:  21 men, 18 women

TLB4:  47 men, 22 women (includes music CDs)

TLB3:  7 men, 6 women

TLB2:  18 men, 11 women

TLB1:  8 men, 10 women

DIGITAL EDITION

Vol 13, Iss 2: 2 men, 6 women

Vol 13, Iss 1: 4 men, 3 women

Vol 12, Iss 1: 2 men, 4 women

Vol 11, Iss 2: 3 men, 3 women

Vol 11, Iss 1: 3 men, 4 women

Vol 10, Iss 2: 4 men, 2 women

Vol 10, Iss 1: 3 men, 4 women

Vol 9, Iss 2: 4 men, 2 women

Vol 9, Iss 1: 2 men, 3 women

Vol 8, Iss 2: 2 men, 4 women

Vol 8, Iss 1: 3 men, 4 women

Vol 7, Iss 2: 4 men, 2 women

Vol 7, Iss 1: 4 men, 1 woman

Vol 6, Iss 2: 4 men, 2 women

Vol 6, Iss 1: 3 men, 3 women

Vol 5, Iss 2: 4 men, 2 women

Vol 5, Iss 1: 3 men, 3 women

Vol 4, Iss 2: 3 men, 3 women

Vol 4, Iss 1: 4 men, 2 women

Vol 3, Iss 2: 2 men, 4 women

Vol 3, Iss 1: 4 men, 6 women

Vol 2, Iss 2: 1 man, 1 woman

Vol 2, Iss 1: 5 men, 5 women

Vol 1, Iss 2: 2 men, 4 women

Vol 1, Iss 1: 4 men, 3 women

ONLINE

Oct 2014: 7 men, 12 women

Sep 2014: 10 men, 5 women

Aug 2014: 12 men, 12 women

Jul 2014: 12 men, 13 women

Jun 2014: 5 women

May 2014: 13 men, 4 women

Apr 2014: 9 men, 8 women

Mar 2014: 11 men, 6 women

Feb 2014: 2 men, 1 woman

In total, that’s 707 contributions by male writers, artists and musicians, and 570 contributions by female contributors. In percentage terms, that’s an overall ratio of 55.3% men and 44.6% women. Not quite equal.

As a reminder, just over a year ago, in September 2013, our tally sat at 477 contributions by male writers, artists and musicians, and 340 contributions by female contributors. In percentage terms, that was an overall ratio of 58.4% male and 41.6% female.

So things have balanced out a tad more! But we’re always looking to do better, so remember pitch, bitch.

Finally, these kinds of things are always presented in pie charts. So here’s a pie chart!

There you go. This little bit of information is now yours.

As always, if you have anything to ask or say, please get in touch.

—The Lifted Brow