Gender Balance in YA Award Winners since 2000

As you can probably tell by the sneak peek above, the results paint a picture that might be surprising if we take the conventional wisdom about the current gender ratio in YA into account. One of the key things about these results is the fact that they raise two possibilities: the first is that the gender balance in award winners is proportional to the gender balance in YA at large, in which case we should perhaps pause and consider the cultural biases that make us see female dominance where none exists; the second is that the gender balance in award winners is completely out of synch with the rest of YA, and in that case we’re left with questions about why we’re rewarding stories by and about men so disproportionately.