The Stella Count

At Stella, we believe that quality research plays a crucial role in driving systemic change. Through the Stella Count and our research work, we seek to tell a story about the state of gender equality in Australian literature, and hold the sector to account into the future.

Explore our findings over the last decade, and help us hold the literary sector to account on providing equal representation for women writers.

2019/2020 Stella Count

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February 13, 2024

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Crashing through the gender parity barrier 2019 was the first year in Stella Count history in which more books by women were …

The Stella Count

The Stella Count is Australia’s leading statistical analysis of gender bias in the field of book reviewing in Australia. Begun in 2012, it collects and interprets data on the gender of authors and reviewers, length of review, and genre of books reviewed.

Top-level findings from the 2019/2020 Stella Counts:

Women authors now receive equal attention in Australian book reviews for the first time in the Stella Count’s history.
9 out of 12 of the publications we survey continue to review the same number, or more, of women authors as men authors.
Review length: Large reviews continue to be a domain that women authors and reviewers struggle to access equally.
‘Gender siloing’ continues to be a feature of the Australian book reviewing landscape – i.e. men tend to review men and women tend to review women.
Genre: Women authors feature strongly in reviews of fiction and children’s and YA literature, but are making inroads when it comes to the reviewing of nonfiction books.
Gender: Non-binary authors and reviewers are becoming more visible in our counting.