Why Does AKPRESS Only Publish/Promote Men?

I have been down to the AK Press warehouse/office in Oakland, CA, and as I recall at least two of the folks working there were women. They must go a long way in the decision making there as such organizations do not have many full-time employees. As to titles available, their full catalog seems balanced, although the key word there is seems as I have never made actual calculations.

They shouldn't publish women JUST to publish women. They should publish manuscripts they feel are worth publishing, manuscripts they feel are worth their time.

Can you prove that they turned down a manuscript or refused to carry a book/pamphlet simply because it was written by a woman?

Kirsten, besides yourself, please provide the names of women and their work that AK Press has turned down. Isn't it possible that the writing just isn't as good as the books that made their list?

"In the last 12 months, AK Press published around 20 new titles." They go on to say that they are short of funds and would like to publish 60 new titles. Maybe money is the problem, not discrimination.

You ask: Why Does AKPRESS Only Publish/Promote Men?

From the AK Press website:
"What follows is a list of our favorite books, videos, pamphlets, and manifestos of all times; things, in our opinion, you just gotta read --

Anarchism: The Feminist Connection by Peggy Kornegger

Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology by Joyce Kornbluh (ed)

Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take On The Global Factory by Mirium Ching Yoon Louie

Self Respect, Self Defense & Self Determination: Featuring Mabel Williams and Kathleen Cleaver by the Freedom Archives

Come September by Arundhati Roy

Living My Life, Volume 1 by Emma Goldman -- One of the first books I ever read about anarchism. This woman led an amazing life, and it is so awesome to read accounts of important historical events first hand."

It doesn't sound to me like they have a problem with women writers.

 http://akpress.org/2005/topics/feminism

i really do not think ak press is intentionally excluding women. i doubt your method and tone of critique will do much to get more attention for anarchist women authors but good luck.

i wonder what the percentage of male to female posters is on indymedia. what if it isn't 50/50?

I went to the AK Press website and picked the ecogreen section and counted the first 100 books/videos.

There were 78 by men, 22 by women... Seems like a glaring discrepancy to me.

No, publishers, employers, and other institutions that carry out activities with glaring racial and gender discrepancies are not entitled to "the benefit of the doubt," no they are not entitled to carry on business as usual unless outsiders with limited access to internal information can "prove" racist or sexist "intent," and yes AK should publish books by women "just because they're by women."

78-22 is a big difference. nearly 80% men

Well, Kirsten is stating it too strongly. It is not like there are no women at all, but 80% is way out of balance and I am glad someone is pointing it out. Publishers, distributors and periodicals that are promoting values of equality and challenging issues of class, sexism etc, should do better than such percentages.

No, it is not that my writing sucks, asshole. Go read my post here on The Yellow Wallpaper! That shit don't work on us women no more thank you! You are not going to blame 100% men on AKPRess front page on women not being good writers.

Several times now white middle class men have approached me and asked to use MY essays in THEIR AKPress books being published. This has happened more than once now. So I am good enough to be published in men's books at AKPRess but not in my own book. Hmmm. Look, quit trying to defend this crap. A fact is a fact. As the last poster said, 22 to 70something...THAT says it all. 100% men on front page. And yes, if these men were merely IGNORANT, it would be fine but I have said this loud enough and enough times now that it CAN NO LONGER BE CALLED ANYTHING BUT INTENTIONAL AND MALICIOUS. PLUS they FIGHT any change saying to include women is merely quota systems pushed on them by feminists and the men won't have it. You can make all the little excuses you want, but a sexist pig is a sexist pig, you can smell it. The numbers say it all, and it IS intentional as I have made this a topic of conversation enough now. And nothing changes. And men keep trying to dis me, dissing my writing to justify it. How about you address the REAL ISSUE rather than trying to character assassinate me? Do you see how only a FIGHTER WOMAN WRITER could STAND this crap long enough to keep pushing this agenda of mine, this crazy feminist agenda of FORCING anarchy press to include even a mere 25%? Oh, how terrible I am! Poor anarchist men are being attacked by mean old feminist writer Kirsten...give me a damned break. Only very strong women writers could STAND this shit. I only stay and keep saying this because I love this community, believe it or not. Read Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "Why I wrote the Yellow Wallpaper" then tell me how much anything has changed since 1913...they told her not to touch a pen or paper to write so her "insanity" would not reoccur...and they told her not to THINK more than two hours a day...I am not backing down. WHY are these numbers so skewed and why does no one care re it?

Oh, and again with the men telling me how to resist my own oppressors! LOL! No, my TONE does not need to be tempered for the sexist men. No, women do not need to repackage telling the oppressor to go to hell for THE OPPRESSORS' comfort levels. These men do not give one crap about how women, women writers or feminists feel, why the fuck should I have to remake my rebellion at their sexism in pretty little packages? Do anarchists need to try a different "tone?" Stop this nonsense and quit blaming the women for the men's sexism. We ain't gonna repackage ANYTHING for the men. We ain't walking on eggshells for the oppressors, sorry. Maybe it is time the sexist pigs I am talking about here changed THEIR TONE?!

Burro, I just realized it was you I just called an asshole. I am shocked that was posted by you, but okay.
To say because a FEW token women writers are published in that SEA OF MEN at AKPress is like saying women are allowed on the Supreme Court equally to men and that Condi Rice proves we are past racism and sexism in America. CAN YOU SAY TOKEN WOMEN?

B.D. says "It is not like there are no women at all, but 80% is way out of balance."

78 to 22 = 72% men. Yes, it's not 50/50. Should everything be 50/50? I'm sure that an analysis of the various categories of book writing/publishing will reveal that in many categories, women writers have the greater percentage of published works. So what?

Kirsten says "...FORCING anarchy press to include even a mere 25%..."
78 to 22 = 28% women

"No, it is not that my writing sucks, asshole." Who stated that your writing sucks? It's your attitude that sucks. The constant in-your-face anger towards all men will only antagonize your efforts to get published. If I were deciding between you and someone else, based on equal quality of work, I'd choose the other person just for this reason.

You have no problem calling me an asshole because you were shocked at my previous comment. Dear Ms. Anderberg, if my mildly negative comment shocked you enough to call me an asshole, it's no wonder you're having problems.

Here's a percentage question: Out of the entire population of men in this country, how many do you think are sexist pigs? And what is the percentage of sexist pigs posting/commenting on indymedia?

I'll say it again:

Kirsten, besides yourself, please provide the names of women and their work that AK Press has turned down. Isn't it possible that the writing just isn't as good as the books that made their list?

Maybe there just aren't many women who are interested in writing about anarchy. Couldn't this also be a possibility?

An example:
A field of interest of mine is entheogens (psychedelics, halluncinogens). When I think about all of the best writers in this field, practically all men come to mind - Albert Hofmann, Richard Shultes, Humphrey Osmond, Jonathan Ott, Terence McKenna and his brother Dennis, Peter Stafford, Paul Stamets, Michael Harner, Weston La Barre, Louis Lewin, Richard Glen Boire, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Andrew Weil, Mark Plotkin, Alexander Shulgin, Peter Furst, R. G. & V.P. Wasson (husband and wife), and Marlene Dobkin de Rios. So is there discrimination going on here? I doubt it.

>Several times now white middle class men have approached me and asked to use MY essays in THEIR AKPress books being published. This has happened more than once now. So I am good enough to be published in men's books at AKPRess but not in my own book.<

I agree with everything you've said, but with one exception: as a woman writer, if you're being offered an opportunity to get published in an anthology, you should at least consider it. Anthology credits up the chances of you getting a book published -- not just with AK, but with anybody. Published credits equals more visibility, equals a greater chance that you'll turn a profit for the publisher, equals a greater chance that you'll get a book contract. Unless you write potboilers, become famous, or hit the right issue at the right time with a couple of truckloads of luck -- and in all those cases, you better get an agent if that's the road you want to go down -- that's the game. It's business.

Is the game discriminatory? Are the odds triply stacked against you (poor, female and radical)? Yes, absolutely -- but you can argue about how messed up they are (which will fall on typically fall on deaf ears,) you can work the system while not being "part of the system," or you and/or a group of friends can invent something of your own -- which means you'll have to deal with the same system all over again, but around distribution instead of production. Of course, these options aren't mutually exclusive, but at least in my experience, they are the ones that are currently available.

The good news is that you can write a proposal or three sample chapters and at least get someone to read it. Try that with a novel and see how far you get.

"." said:

> I went to the AK Press website and picked the ecogreen section and counted the first 100
> books/videos.
>
> There were 78 by men, 22 by women... Seems like a glaring discrepancy to me.

math-challenged "Burro" said:

> 78 to 22 = 72% men.
> 78 to 22 = 28% women

Commentary seems redundant, but here it is:

78 + 22 = 100. 78 out of 100 is 78%, indeed "almost 80%."
22 out of 100 is 22%, indeed "less than 25%." More math is unnecessary.

ONLY men ! Meaning 100% . This is factually incorrect.

You went to law school so you tell me: Is there a cause for a civil action if you say something about an organization which is not true with the intent or effect of defaming their reputation ?

I think women are more than fifty percent of the population. Regardless, it has no bearing in establishing a case for discrimination.

You should have found out what percentage of their submissions are by men or women. That information would have considerable bearing on the strength or weakness of your argument. For instance if 80 % of their submissions are by men your case goes down the toilet. I don't know if that is or isn't the case. Do you ?

You might also check to see what the ratio of men to women authors are for other publishers. Are you trying to set these guys up for a lawsuit or are you just screaming discrimination to coerce them into publishing you ?

I sincerely apologize for that stupid percentage error on my part at 4am. No excuses. However, it does seem strange to me that the only thing you found to comment about was this error of a few percentage points, which had nothing to do with the main points that I brought up. Rather than choosing to address them, you choose only to pick on this small error. That says a lot.

Let's be clear about something here. I have absolutely no problem with women writers. I enjoy reading creative, informative, well-researched work that gets me to thinking about a topic. I don't care who writes it. If it's good, I'll buy it. I'm guessing that the majority of people (men and women) feel the same way. My purpose here, as it hopefully is everywhere, is to explore all areas of a real and/or perceived problem. Rational adults are able to discuss all possibilities surrounding a particular situation without getting pissed off at the messenger.

> Rather than choosing to address them, you choose only to pick on this small error.

Get over yourself, burro. You screwed up. Shut up and deal with it.

> You went to law school so you tell me: Is there a cause for
> a civil action if you say something about an organization
> which is not true with the intent or effect of defaming their
> reputation ?
>
> I think women are more than fifty percent of the population.
> Regardless, it has no bearing in establishing a case for
> discrimination.

Nobody's threatening lawsuits except you, baby. What's your problem? Don't be an asshole.

K, you're devaluing the works of these women when you speak of them as token women. Please, don't take their accomplishments away from them.

kristen, have you tried to get published by AK? you are not clear on that. what do you propose they do? how should they solicit female writers? it seems publishers don't solicit manuscripits but see what comes to them. maybe you should look into the proportion of male to female submissions. good luck with all that.

while you can use whatever 'tone' you feel like. i don't think you're current approach is going to change shit. i'm not trying to be a dick, or tell you how to resist your oppresors as you put it, but if you want a tangible result from this issue, well... shit i'm a sexist pig right? so maybe i shouldn't tell you how to resist. i'll just shut my male mouth and be done.

Oh my god! I am laughing my ASS off here!!! As i said, this shit is VERY MUCH intentional and this is evident from these comments. Let's take this one comment at a time!

Burro says, "78 to 22 = 72% men. Yes, it's not 50/50. Should everything be 50/50? I'm sure that an analysis of the various categories of book writing/publishing will reveal that in many categories, women writers have the greater percentage of published works. So what?"

So does it matter if people of color are never published? Does it matter if only whites are published? Does it matter if people of color are FILLING up the lower combat ranks in war and the privileged white kids are not treated thusly? Does it matter that black men are incarcerated a ton compared to white middle class men? Same issue here but with women. Do NOT try to pooh pooh this, I am well educated on this and I am saying you WILL NOT get around this. I KNOW this is sexist and your hollow words will not rewrite REALITY. So, is there even ONE nonwhite, nonmale here arguing against me? Telling, eh, boys?

Burro says -
Kirsten says "...FORCING anarchy press to include even a mere 25%..."
78 to 22 = 28% women

WRONG. Go to my webpage at  http://resist.ca/~kirstena/pagesexismwatch.html -it ain't even 28% asshole.
On the front page of AKPress right now it is 100%, let me repeat that 100% males.

Burro says-
"No, it is not that my writing sucks, asshole." Who stated that your writing sucks? It's your attitude that sucks. The constant in-your-face anger towards all men will only antagonize your efforts to get published. If I were deciding between you and someone else, based on equal quality of work, I'd choose the other person just for this reason.

Oh my my my, the sexist bullshit never changes for 100's of years...so now I must have the PROPER ATTITUDE FOR THE MEN TO TELL THEM THEY ARE SEXIST?? So are you doing that for the women? Are YOU tempering YOUR sexist TONE for the feminists and women writers? Why do you ask of me what you would never ever do? So let me get this straight, since I have the wrong "tone" and am NOT A "GOOD GIRL" for the men,I AM PUNISHED FOR MY FEMINISM? LOL! Oh that is new! NOT! AS I SAID, we ain't walking on eggshells for men anymore and this is exactly why WE NEED OUR OWN POWER as MEN USE THE POWER TO REWARD SUBMISSIVE WOMEN WHO WILL NOT BE FEMINIST LIKE I AM. Burro, go fuck your male self. You no longer shock me, I obviously thought you had more conscience than you do. oOur FEAR OF FEMINISTS says more about you than me.

And burro, YOU said my writing sucks before and in THIS post!!! LMAO! "Isn't it possible that the writing just isn't as good as the books that made their list?" Are you jealous that I am a good writer burro? Are you saying my writing is worse than all those men's? Oh please...this is the OLDEST crap in the book. And there are facts that contradict this as in I am well published. Actually, I headline more than any woman I know of in anarchy venues but I am sick of being a token woman writer. This bullshit is just that, bullshit to avoid the reality of this sexism. Anything to avoid the real topic.

Burro says, "You have no problem calling me an asshole because you were shocked at my previous comment. Dear Ms. Anderberg, if my mildly negative comment shocked you enough to call me an asshole, it's no wonder you're having problems."

Yet your calling me an asshole makes you superior? LOL! I was not shocked by your comment, I was shocked by your ignorance. You are still DEFENDING THE SEXISM rather than addressing the cause.

Burro says, "Here's a percentage question: Out of the entire population of men in this country, how many do you think are sexist pigs? And what is the percentage of sexist pigs posting/commenting on indymedia?"

Um, judging by you burro, and anarchy press, i guess maybe it is a good 95% of men are sexist pigs. Quit trivializing the issue. You show how far we have to go here.

burro says, "I'll say it again: Kirsten, besides yourself, please provide the names of women and their work that AK Press has turned down. Isn't it possible that the writing just isn't as good as the books that made their list?"

So burro, it is MORE plausible that one of the most, if not THE most published headlining woman writer in anarchy, is a good writer, since she is CONSTANTLY published headlining in anarchist press more than other women and in a broader group of publications but I also am mad I am cut off from a lot of the PAYING writing gigs the men hog for only men. And that you are desperately trying to blame the women for the males' sexism is gross. That shit don't work no more burro. Women are smarter than that now. I think it is more plausible that there is BLATANT DEFENDED SEXISM IN ANARCHY PRESS, INCLUDING THE 100% MALE HEADLINES ON AKPRESS NOW, and that instead of men dealing with this, they are now attacking the women who out this. Look, I AM one of the few published women in anarchy and I am saying THERE IS NOT ENOUGH SPACE FOR WOMEN HERE.

burro says, "ONLY men ! Meaning 100% . This is factually incorrect."

BULLSHIT ASSHOLE! 100% MEN IS EXACTLY FACTUALLY CORRECT. Go to the webpage. CAN YOU COUNT BURRO?

someone else says- "You went to law school so you tell me: Is there a cause for a civil action if you say something about an organization which is not true with the intent or effect of defaming their reputation ?"

I have said truth and it is the men here who are having trouble accepting it. I WILL SAY IT AGAIN, AKPRESS HAS 100% MEN on their FRONT PAGE RIGHT NOW. DO THEY PUBLISH WOMEN? No, not if you look at their front page. Do they publish women if you look further ont heir site...um, maybe less than 25%...WHY ON EARTH are you men defending this??? Says alot honestly. So are you talking about your illegal defaming of my reputation or what? I have no idea what you are talking about.

someone said, "I think women are more than fifty percent of the population. Regardless, it has no bearing in establishing a case for discrimination."

LOL! Okay, and leaving people of color out of everything has no relevance at all. Why do we need oh, black judges? Why bother with black lawyers or doctors? White men can do that...you need to check your shit asshole. If you do not understand the politics of oppression, that is YOUR problem. I am STUNNED at the idiotic remarks by men here.

someone said, "You should have found out what percentage of their submissions are by men or women."

Look, I have been doing this for 2 years. How long have you been researching this? I KNOW about the submissions and I know WOMEN DO NOT SUBMIT TO PLACES WITH 100% MEN ON THEIR FRONT PAGE ASSHOLE! And I already wrote about this submission issue in the current Alt Press Review Magazine where Jason poohpoohs me.

someone said, "That information would have considerable bearing on the strength or weakness of your argument. For instance if 80 % of their submissions are by men your case goes down the toilet. I don't know if that is or isn't the case. Do you ?

DENIAL DENIAL DENIAL. Numbers say it all. And the numbers on the front page of AKPress are 100% male. If you cannot ADMIT that is sexism, I have no use for you in my revolution. Go play with the men. Women are sick of your defensive shit. And no, we are not taking your little bullshit about US being assholes for outing sexism, that we are shitty writers due to sexism, that we DESERVE to not be published for outing the sexism in anarchy press, for saying it in the wrong TONE, etc. ONLY GOOD GIRLS GET PUBLISHED IN ANARCHY PRESS? IS THAT WHAT YOU MEN ARE SAYING? ONLY GOOD GIRLS WHO KISS YOUR DICKS GET PUBLISHED AND REWARDED BY MEN IN ANARCHY PRESS? FUCK OFF! THEN WE DON'T WANT YOUR DICK PRESS AND thus all those subcategories of everything NOT WHITE MALE in anarchy. It is time the white men WERE THE SUBCATEGORY. It is time WHITE MEN had THEIR bcredentials and writing skills and TONE evaluated by WOMEN EDITORS AND PUBLISHERS WITH ALL THE MONEY AND POWER. That really is your fear, isn't it boys? YOu are afraid if we women get the power the men now have we might treat you as you have treated us...that really is what ALL these male comments are about, isn't it? HOW DARE you turn this around to be saying that I am the sexist one! The men here whine about being called sexist pigs yet they do not give one shit about sexism, the REAL kind, the INSTITUTIONALIZED KIND, against women. Men cannot take even 1% of the abuse feminist women endure before whining THEY, the oppressors, are now the VICTIMS. Get over yourself. White guys have gotten far too many perks for far too long based on NOTHING but race, class and gender not on strong writing skills, not on their TONE being acceptable, etc.

I am NOT a good girl and I am not kissing up to alpha anarchy males. Period. And that is what burro wants, feminists who are told how to act by the men. I will do it MY OWN WAY WITHOUT THEIR HELP IF I MUST. But the comical rationalizing and even DENIAL OF FACTUAL NUMBERS HERE, over and over trying to DENY that AKPRess has 100%, let me repeat 100% and that means NO NONE NOT ONE woman on the front page, so again, WHY would ANY woman submit to them?

At this point, I am not interested in SUPPORTING the male bastions that reward GOOD GIRLS WHO DO NOT OUT SEXISM...oh come on now boys...anarchy now means girls can play but only if we do not raise the issue of sexism??? Only if we stroke the male egos at every turn so they REWARD us? LMAO! Anarchy is a total and absolute joke then. I want nothing to do with that male-exclusive patriarchal enclave. I can say what pigs they are....and all you men can defend them. God knows you would not want to actually work WITH WOMEN TO LET US IN...no, instead just keep trying to character assinate our work, yeah, that's the ticket.

TO be frank, I have more published work out than ANY of the posters in this comment section. I KNOW what I am talking about and these comments proved to me IT IS MALICIOUS. Men will try to use ANYTHING to stop this integration of women into the press. THey will call the women uncouth, say we need to tinker with our presentation so as not to upset the men, men lie and say only terrible women writers don't get published, men have lied repeatedly about the 100% male count on AKPress's webpage which is irrefutable but you men keep on trying to redefine reality and it is gross to me that this is about you men DEFENDING AND RATIONALIZING SEXISM SO YES, THIS IS INTENTIONAL and all you men defending this shit are now accomplices.

What utter nonsense. You avoided the whole issue in the most predictable manner. Attack the feminist, not the actual problem. I am not having it. Kiss my ass. Oh no, I acted like MALE anarchists! I better be punished by the male anarchists for not having the right feminine TONE for them...oh my even as an anarchist I am a subjugated woman. LOL! No thanks!

someone said
"You might also check to see what the ratio of men to women authors are for other publishers. Are you trying to set these guys up for a lawsuit or are you just screaming discrimination to coerce them into publishing you ?"

Um, are you writing that comment to try to put this woman BACK IN HER PLACE???! LOL! Cuz it ain't gonna work. Why don't YOU MEN check out these numbers. I have done my homework. It is you who are clueless! I am not screaming for AKPress to publish me and honestly doubt I would LET them publish me. They are sexist bullshit. I don't support that. I would rather wait for a decent publisher. And it will come. And you will eat your words. I am sick of this shit where you men are REFUSING to hear reality. Support your all male enclaves but THERE WILL BE NO REVOLUTION WITHOUT THE MOTHERS...so you boys are fucked and honestly, no one is going to protect, support or come to the aid of white privileged boys much longer. Your days of gender privilege are numbered. We are on to your bullshit and not interested. We will work AROUND you this time and just plain leave you out. YOu made your bed, lie in it.

>We are on to your bullshit and not interested. We will work AROUND you this time and just plain leave you out. YOu made your bed, lie in it.<

Well, good! I still contend that you're gonna have to deal with distribution -- but that's every bit as much in need of alternatives as publishing is. Just ignore the boys and move on. All they're gonna do is give you grief, and you've got work to do. More power to you.

ps: the "white boys club" of anarchism may be doomed, but anarcha-feminism definitely isn't.

It does not say: Why Does AKPRESS Only Promote Men on the front page?

If you say "Why Does AKPRESS Only Publish/Promote Men?" you are saying that there are no women either published or promoted there. That is not true.

They have twenty pages of books by women writers. It looks like they are promoting them too. It's evidently not enough to make you happy but your headline is still dead wrong.

I honestly cannot understand why you don't get published. You absolutely fit the most important criteria for anarchist writing: being very, very long-winded.

This is from your supporters:

"I went to the AK Press website and picked the ecogreen section and counted the first 100 books/videos. There were 78 by men, 22 by women... Seems like a glaring discrepancy to me."
and
"78-22 is a big difference. nearly 80% men. Well, Kirsten is stating it too strongly. It is not like there are no women at all, but 80% is way out of balance and I am glad someone is pointing it out. Publishers, distributors and periodicals that are promoting values of equality and challenging issues of class, sexism etc, should do better than such percentages."

These are the figures that I used. Have you reached the point where you don't even support your own supporters?! Your totally irrational reactions (i.e. I never said your writing sucks, but you insist that I did) leads me to bring up the following.

I'll say this in all sincerity kirsten -- in the spirit of offering you what I think is a good suggestion: You are always whining about being poor. In the past, I have helped people to collect SSI and SSD - free money from the government. I'm not sure if your scruples would allow you to accept this money (or even if you have any scruples). I feel certain that you would qualify for this assistance. It could supplement whatever money you receive for your marvelous writing. Maybe I'm being presumptuous here, and you're already receiving this assistance. Whatever, I wish you the best.

Burro said: "Maybe there just aren't many women who are interested in writing about anarchy. Couldn't this also be a possibility?"

The person who counted the 78% did so in the ecogreen section, not anarchy section.

Honestly, I really do not understand the arguing over this point. All across the board in leftist/radical publications, there are far more men than women. This is a basic fact.

Can anyone say, really say, they think that is not a problem? That women are so under represented? Of course it is a problem. I do not think it necessarily means that AK Press is willfully excluding women. The causes are various, some subtle and society wide. I also think Kirsten becomes so strident and attacking that it just tends to bring a defensive response from people who would probably agree that it would be healthier to see a distribution that was more evenly representative of the people.

Women are second class citizens in this society. This is still just so. I know too many women who are strong, competent people who daily can tell stories of how this is still just so. This does not make men evil, but it does mean men should recognize it, and make some effort to address it. Rather than just scream at them, a campaign to encourage AK Press to recognize the disparity and make some effort to address it would more helpful.

Perhaps AK Press could have, posted on their site, a statement which says "We would like to encourage more women authors to publish because we receive more books from men than from women and we would like to bring about a better balance in our catalog". Maybe there are other things they could and would do if encouraged by letters and phone calls.

Women are treated like second class citizens by men both intentionally and in more subtle ways and it all adds to women represented less than they should be in publishing.

Kirsten, I have tremendous respect for you as a feminist writer and because our feminisms are similar I mostly agree with you and want your message to come out as best as possible, so I have to tell you that the all-caps don't do your political ideas justice.

Also, I liked the point Anon made about recognizing that while to men they're token women, to women they are our peers and the ones who were successfully twice as good as the men around them to get to their published place.

kristen

i was trying to be reasonablly nice and inquire as to whether ou have researeched submissions or not. your response was pretty much that you have. well good but how was i suppossed to know that? then you go on to call me an asshole. so there is no room for me in your revolution? and likewise i see no room for you in anything i'd like to be a part of and that is why we will remain fucked. you have no clue as to my minority status- yet i am an asshole. good luck in yr personal revolution.

I am from Oakland and like every otherr radically minided businee in oakland, Berkeley and SF, Ak Press is run mostly by men. The women who do work there don't usually stick around for long. It's hard to tough it out in the good ol' boys club. I have learned not to expect much out of any radically minded men and the projects they start or work on. They were socializrd to be sexist like everyone els and they don't have the balls to be radical when it comes to thier privilage. So why would AK Press be any different? Women are published far less than men in general.. So why would Ak Press be any different?
There are radical women centered publishers but why would our male peers have thier catalogs when AK Press just released thiers?
I am not suggesting resignation in any way, i am just sick of fucking talking back to a brick wall.

Truly a humbling experience reading your response. I realize now that I'm an asshole and that you are a genius.

"Look, I have been doing this for 2 years. How long have you been researching this? I KNOW about the submissions and I know WOMEN DO NOT SUBMIT TO PLACES WITH 100% MEN ON THEIR FRONT PAGE ASSHOLE! "

Check it out genius.
 http://www.akpress.org/latest

As to your question how long I've been researching this : About eleven minutes.

as of today, 11 out of the 25 new release are works of women and 2 of the 25 are works from collectives such as Crimethinc. i'm not exactly sure how to count those 2 (oh and 1 of the 25 is a patch with no credited author), but either way 11 out of 25 is much better 0 of 25. so it does seem that AK is currently printing a good deal of women writers. the question still remains why the front page is 100% male (with the exception the anthology No Gods No master, edited by a man but it does contain women writers).
I feel that a lot of people have brought up some great points. Clearly more can be done to create more equality amoungst anarchist publishers. I'm confident that women writers do not make up 50% of the submissions to AK press (i should note that this confidence is not based on any evidence just personal experience). But rather then use this as an excuse as to why we shouldnt expect works from women to make up 50% of published works i think it will serve us all better to ask why it is that anarchism has remained a movement dominated by men. as lucy points out this is not something limited to AK press but rather an issue all throughout the movement.