Why are most agents women?

We're part of a vast underground syndicate bent on establishing a literary gynocracy in which male writers are our slaves!

OH CRAP I'VE SAID TOO MUCH.

Jennifer_Laughran said:

We're part of a vast underground syndicate bent on establishing a literary gynocracy in which male writers are our slaves!

OH CRAP I'VE SAID TOO MUCH.

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The scary answer might be the one to this question:

How many of us would take that deal to get published?

Eww! Girl germs!

Laer Carroll said:

In the last week I've been researching agents found from many different sources, ending up reading in detail well over a hundred agent submission guides.

In passing I've notices that perhaps 90% are women. Why is that, I wonder?

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I'd like to see the data.

Helix said:

I'd like to see the data.

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Oh, you'll never get access to that data. Do you think the women are fools?

I asked the same question one time and three of them met me in the parking lot and beat the crap out of me.

Well, duh.

Over 60% of college students are female. Maybe the English Major ratio is even more askew (I was an English major).

Calla Lily said:

...and you were warned never to speak of it again.

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Best use of an emoticon ever!

Helix said:

I'd like to see the data.

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This is something I've noticed as well actually... I doubt there's any hard data out there and it's not exactly 90% female but you can plainly see the difference. I just opened query tracker and picked 3 pages at random(small sample size, I know). Ignoring names I couldn't tell were male or female I got: 25-8 26-7 and 22-10 females to male.

Hey! I go off to make myself a cup of tea and when I get back, Haggis has...gone.

And yet women don't seem as sure of themselves as men. All the agents that have shown an interest in my work have been men, and their feedback suggests a lot more daring, a willingness to bend those cookie-cutter "rules."

OMG, I just looked up "gynocracy," and it's a real word!

Women are often more relationship oriented and agenting is based on relationships, much like therapy. That's my hypothesis. It's either that or the evil conspiracy deal. It would be just like them to reveal the truth wrapped in humor to throw us off.

Huh. Of the top 100 dealmakers listed on Publishers Marketplace for general fiction, 75 are women. For general nonfiction, 51 are women, so it's basically an even split.

I can think of only one reason for taking note of whether the agent you're querying is a man or a woman: to make sure you don't address the query incorrectly, pretty much announcing right off the bat you're a raw noob who hasn't done his homework. just sayin'

chickenma said:

And yet women don't seem as sure of themselves as men. All the agents that have shown an interest in my work have been men, and their feedback suggests a lot more daring, a willingness to bend those cookie-cutter "rules."

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Could be that your subject matter or writing style tends to appeal more to men, or you targeted the male agents better than the female, or any number of other factors. If men are the ones interested, then their feedback is naturally going to be more in depth and enthusiastic than the feedback from agents who aren't interested.

Women agents being less sure of themselves than men is such a broad brushstroke based on faulty evidence, and fairly sexist to boot. In all fairness, I don't think coming off that way was your intention, but that's how it ended up.

Laer Carroll said:

In the last week I've been researching agents found from many different sources, ending up reading in detail well over a hundred agent submission guides.

In passing I've notices that perhaps 90% are women. Why is that, I wonder?

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If you had noticed that the majority were men, would you have asked why that was?

chickenma said:

And yet women don't seem as sure of themselves as men. All the agents that have shown an interest in my work have been men, and their feedback suggests a lot more daring, a willingness to bend those cookie-cutter "rules."

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My bold.

That's a really inappropriate response to have to the circumstances you describe.

Anecdotal evidence only on my part: the male literary agents I've met have tended to well-spoken, polite, and sometimes even a bit aloof. The female agents (even in the same agencies) have been direct, gregarious, and downright snarky. I don't mind either. Whatever it takes to pitch a book, make the sale, and forge a relationship with the publisher.