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Therole ofwomen inspeculative fiction has changed a great deal since the early to mid-20th century. There are several aspects to women's roles, including their participation as authors of speculative fiction and their role in science fiction fandom. Regarding authorship, in 1948, 10–15% ofscience fiction writers were female. Women's role inspeculative fiction (includingscience fiction) has grown since then, and in 1999, women comprised 36% of theScience Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's professional members.[1]Frankenstein (1818) byMary Shelley has been called the first science fiction novel,[2] although women wroteutopian novels even before that, withMargaret Cavendish publishing the first (The Blazing World) in the seventeenth century.[3] Early publishedfantasy was written by and for any gender. However, speculative fiction, with science fiction in particular, has traditionally been viewed as a male-oriented genre.[4]
Women have been active inscience fiction fandom for a number of decades.
Science fiction originally had a reputation of being created by men for other men, though the genre had women writers, such asClare Winger Harris,Miriam Allen deFord, andGertrude Barrows Bennett, from the beginning.[5] Until the late 1960s, women did not win major[6] science fiction awards, such as theHugos. The 1966 "Analog Science Fiction and Fact All-Time Poll" did not list any novels by women[7] and the 1973 "Locus All-Time Favorite Authors Poll" was over 90% male.[8] One of the two women in Locus's poll,Andre Norton, had been "gender ambiguous" for many of her readers. Other female writers of the era, such asC. L. Moore andLeigh Brackett, also used ambiguous or male names. Women who wrote under their own names, such asZenna Henderson, initially wrote more "domestic" material concerning teachers and mothers. A partial exception wasKatherine MacLean, who wrote sociology- and psychology-oriented fiction and rarely used a male name.[5]
Eric Leif Davin argues inPartners in Wonder that science fiction's "male-oriented" reputation is unjustified and that it was a "safe haven" for outsiders, including women.[9] Davin reports that onlyL. Taylor Hansen concealed her sex in early years, and that C. L. Moore wanted to hide her career as a science fiction author from her job.
Women writers were in a minority: during the '50s and '60s, almost 1,000 stories published in science fiction magazines by over 200 female-identified authors between 1926 and 1960 were documented, making women writers 10-15% of contributors. His is a minority view, "at odds with the common perception of science fiction".[9]
The advent ofsecond wave feminism in the 1960s, combined with the growing view of science fiction as the literature of ideas, led to an influx of female science fiction writers, and some saw this influx as the first appearance of women into the genre. In the 1960s and 1970s, authors such asUrsula K. Le Guin (who debuted in 1963) andJoanna Russ (who debuted in the 1950s) began to consciously explorefeminist themes in works such asThe Left Hand of Darkness andThe Female Man, creating a self-consciouslyfeminist science fiction.
As of 2013, publisher statistics indicate that men still outnumber women about two to one among English-language speculative fiction writers aiming for professional publication, but that the percentages vary considerably by genre. The following numbers are based on the 503 submissions received byTor Books, a major science fiction and fantasy publisher, between January and July 2013.[10]
| Submissions by genre | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| Historical,epic orhigh fantasy | 33% | 67% |
| Urban fantasy orparanormal romance | 57% | 43% |
| Horror | 17% | 83% |
| Science fiction | 22% | 78% |
| Young adult fiction | 68% | 32% |
| Other or unclassifiable | 27% | 73% |
| Overall | 37% | 63% |
Ten women have been namedGrand Master of science fiction by theScience Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America:[11]
Doris Lessing, who wrote the five-novel science fiction seriesCanopus in Argos, received the 2007Nobel Prize in Literature.
TheEncyclopedia of Science Fiction lists three notable women authors ofmilitary science fiction:Lois McMaster Bujold;Elizabeth Moon (particularly herFamilias Regnant stories such asHunting Party (1993)), andKaren Traviss.[12]
 | This list has noprecise inclusion criteria as described in theManual of Style for standalone lists. Pleaseimprove this article by adding inclusion criteria, or discuss this issue on thetalk page.(December 2023) |
Below is an evolving list of women authors in science fiction emphasizing diversity and innovation across various subgenres:
Women have been active inscience fiction fandom for some time, and theOxford Dictionary of Science Fiction dates the coinage "femfan" (sometimes: "femme fan") to as early as 1944.[13] Leigh Brackett says of the history of women in SF "There always were a certain number of women fans and women readers."[14] Labalestier quotes the editor ofStartling Stories, writing in 1953, as saying
Ten years ago [i.e., 1943] stf fans were practically all male, today with or without benefit of fan activities, a lot of girls and housewives and other members of the sex are quietly reading science fiction and beginning to add their voices to the bable... We honestly never expected such a surge of female women into science fiction[15]
A 1958 self-reportedIf survey found that 31% of respondents were women, which the editors said was "surprisingly high (at least to us)".[16]Robert Silverberg said "probably the first appearance of the 'Women in Science Fiction' panel soon to become a fixture of these conventions" was at the10th World Science Fiction Convention in 1953;[17] which was also the firstWorld Science Fiction Convention chaired by a woman, authorJulian May.
Whilescience fiction fandom has been an organized phenomenon for decades—presaging the organized fandoms of other genres and media—the study of science fiction fandom withincultural studies andscience fiction studies is relatively new. Consequently, assertions about the prevalence of women in fandom are largely anecdotal and personal, and sometimes contradictory. Most prominent among these assertions is the claim that it was the advent of the originalStar Trek television series which brought large quantities of women into fandom. This claim is critically analyzed by Davin, who finds it poorly founded, and cites a long history of female involvement in fandom decades prior toStar Trek;[18] Larbalestier also cites women active in science fiction fandom before the late 1960s and early 1970s.[15]
However, women became more visibly present in fandom, and more organized, in the 1970s. Theslash movement among fans began, as far as anyone can tell, with Diane Marchant's publication of the first knownStar Trek "Kirk/Spock" story inGrup #3 in 1974. 1974 also saw the creation ofThe Witch and the Chameleon, the first explicitly feministfanzine.[19] The fanzineKhatru published a "Women in Science Fiction" symposium in 1975 (one of the "males" who participated wasJames Tiptree, Jr.). In 1976,Susan Wood set up a panel on "women and science fiction" atMidAmericon, the 1976 Worldcon; this ultimately led to the founding ofA Women's APA, the first women'samateur press association. Also in 1976,WisCon, the world's leading—and for many years, only—feminist science fiction convention and conference was founded: an annual conference inMadison,Wisconsin. In turn, as a result of discussions at WisCon, institutions such as theTiptree Awards andBroad Universe arose to address questions of gender in speculative fiction and issues peculiar to women writers of speculative fiction.[20] Some of the same people involved in creating WisCon also founded the feminist fanzineJanus, which was thrice nominated for theHugo Award for Best Fanzine (1978–1980).[21]
However, the perception of speculative fiction as mainly a men's genre continues to be widespread. As the inclusion of women within science fiction and fantasy more broadly has become obvious, the specificity of the perception has evolved. For instance, the still widely held view that "science fiction and fantasy are men's genres" has been refined by some to distinguish between science fiction as a genre mainly appealing to men, and fantasy, which is generally seen as being more accommodating to women[22] (some subgenres, particularlyurban fantasy, with female protagonists, andparanormal romance are seen as being more popular with women than with men[23]). Little formal study has supported any of these distinctions, whether based on readers, writers, or characters.
This perception has often been upheld and enforced by men, perhaps to protect themselves from what fandom researcherHenry Jenkins called the stereotype that “men are feminized and/or desexualized through their intimate engagement with mass culture”.[24] Women fans of speculative fiction are called pejorative terms like “fake geek girl”and are chastised for their love of “Mary Sue” characters, while at the same time male characters with the same qualities are beloved,[25] and can even face harassment for their participation in fandom.[26] However, Jenkins writes, speculative fiction is especially popular with women who identify with feminism because they reject the gender roles that are traditionally seen in other types of fiction.
[...] science fiction and fantasy pulp magazines were directed mainly at boys[...]. Female characters were only occasionally included in science fiction pulp stories; the male protagonists' lengthy explanations to the women with limited knowledge revealed the plots
The highlighting ofgender in science fiction has varied widely throughout the genre's history. Some writers and artists have challenged their society's gender norms in producing their work; others have not. Speculative and science fiction fandoms have generally become less proportionately male over time. In step with this, so have the casts of characters portrayed in fiction; similarly, considerations of gender in speculative and science fiction have increased in frequency and nuance over time.[28]
The study of women within science fiction in the last decades of the twentieth century was driven in part by thefeminist andgay liberation movements, and has included strands of the various related and spin-off movements, such asgender studies andqueer theory.
In the 1970s, a number of events began to focus on women in fandom, professional science fiction, and as characters. In 1974,Pamela Sargent published an influential anthology,Women of Wonder: Science Fiction Stories by Women, About Women—the first of many anthologies to come that focused on women or gender rules. Additionally, movement among writers concerned with feminism and gender roles sprang up, leading to a genre of "feminist science fiction" includingJoanna Russ' 1975The Female Man,Samuel R. Delany's 1976Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia, andMarge Piercy's 1976Woman on the Edge of Time.
The 1970s also saw a vibrantgay liberation movement, which made its presence known in science fiction,[29] with gay/lesbian and gay/lesbian-friendly panels atconventions and articles infanzines; gay/lesbian content increasingly present in the fiction itself; the gay/lesbian bookstore "A Different Light", which took its name fromElizabeth A. Lynn's novel of the same name;[30][31] and a focus onLGBT issues in the pages of feminist publications.
More recently, the 2010s have sparked a rebirth for speculative fiction. This revival of the genre can be attributed to the political chaos that came with the2016 election in which Donald J. Trump won the U.S. presidency. Margaret Atwood's speculative science fiction novelThe Handmaid's Tale was adapted into a television series Hulu special and saw such success that it was renewed for a second season. Many critics made the connection betweenThe Handmaid's Tale and President Trump's America in multiple reviews of the series. The fears that came with such a controversial election have given way to a revival of speculative fiction in the 2010s.
Margaret Atwood'sThe Handmaid's Tale was adapted into afilm in 1990, directed byVolker Schlöndorff. The film received a 31% positive review onRotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 4.8/10.
The Handmaid's Tale was also adapted into a ten-episode television series Hulu special released on April 26, 2017. Theseries saw such success that it was renewed for a second season set to release in April 2018.
Octavia Butler's speculative science/fantasy fiction novelDawn, the first in her trilogy titledLilith's Brood, is currently being adapted for television by producersAva DuVernay and Charles D. King's Macro Ventures alongside writerVictoria Mahoney. There is no projected release date for the adaptation yet.
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