WIPO Holds Panel on Empowering Women in the Publishing Industry

December 30, 2019

On October 4, 2019, in the framework of the 59th series of meetings of the WIPO Assemblies, the Copyright and Creative Industries Sector and the WIPO Human Resources Management Department organized a panel discussion on “Empowering Women in the Publishing Industry”.

WIPO Director General, Mr. Francis Gurry, opened the event by emphasizing the importance of gender equality in the publishing industry: publishing, just as the entire creative industry, is an extremely important soft power and it is thus critical to reach equal representation in this area.

Ms. Forbin, Deputy Director General, opened the debate by mentioning that publishing has not always been gender neutral. On the contrary, some examples of women authors who changed their nom de plume in order to be published showed that it was sometime better to hide one’s female identity: among others, the British author J. K. Rowling, the Bronte Sisters, George Sand and Fred Vargas.

Ms. Forbin then highlighted that fortunately times are changing and successful women are now adding their female touch to the publishing industry. Examples include:

• Ms. Bodour Al Qasimi - the founder and CEO of Kalimat Publishing Group, specialized in children’s book and educational contents to promote the Arabic language and Youth empowerment;
• Ms. Teresa Cremisi - the editorial director of Gallimard and the president of Flammarion; and
• Ms. Trasvin Jittidecharak - the founder of Silkworm Books, the first women editor in South-East Asia and an advocate for the promotion of copyright protection and against censorship.

The debate

The main topic on debate was whether gender has an effect on the editorial choices, commercial policies and educational strategies in today‘s world.

Ms. Amina Hachimi-Alaoui

The first panelist, Ms. Amina Hachimi-Alaoui, founder of the publishing house Yanbow Al Kitab, explained that her idea of opening a library emerged during a particular context in Morocco, when, after independence, a form of duality of “tradition and modernity” had taken root in the lives of Moroccan women.

According to Ms. Hachimi-Alaoui, many female Moroccan teachers are working to improve the quantity and quality of educational materials to make books more accessible for schools and children. These women belong to a younger, more creative generation, which has been inspired to enter the publishing industry by pioneers like Ms. Hachimi-Alaoui. Notwithstanding the work of these women, publishing needs to be mindful of societal support for specific issues, which may not be in existence yet.

Ms. Roanie Levy

The second speaker, Ms. Roanie Levy, President and Chief Executive Officer of Access Copyright, explained that North America also faces a form of censorship as books on women issues are often marginal to the publishing industry.

Ms. Levy added that women are overrepresented in the Canadian publishing industry: approximately 70% of employees are women. She noted that low salaries might explain the underrepresentation of men in the sector. Further, the industry is characterized by an important gender wage gap, with women authors often making just half of what men earn.

Mr. Michiel Kolman

Mr. Michiel Kolman, Senior Vice President Elsevier and Presidential Envoy for Diversity and Inclusion at the International Publishers’ Association, Board member of the Accessible Books Consortium, noted that data from the global north show that the publishing industry is making great progress on gender diversity.

For instance, UK data by the Publishers Association on the Publishing Workforce show that more women than men work in publishing. More importantly, they show that women hold 54 percent of leadership and senior executive roles within the industry. More challenging is the situation around ethnicity where it has been difficult to attract and retain staff belonging to ethnic minorities.

In the global south, hard data are not easily available but anecdotal evidence shows over and over again that many women, such as Moroccan children’s publisher Amina Hachimi Alaoui, are starting their own publishing businesses. The smaller and newer publishers, in particular, are proving to be more innovative and willing to challenge the status quo by publishing work that is beyond the mainstream and that provides a platform for new voices in the world of literature and culture. More and more of these voices are female, offering a great illustration of how diversity and inclusion serves societal and cultural change.

On this matter, Ms. Levy added that, in 2012, Canada expanded copyright exemptions to the educational sector through the Copyright Modernization Act, which affected negatively publishing and earnings. As a result, many independent publishers and women publishers have seen a decrease in their revenues.

WIPO’s role

In this framework, the role of WIPO is critical. The organization provides a dynamic platform to discuss ways to improve infrastructure and practices in the publishing industry. Panelists agreed that there is still room for improvement in the area of lending right and copyright, and knowledge of rights by publishers, in particular women publishers. They also agreed that a priority area is related to the improvement of indicators to track gaps and measure progress in publishing.