Persistence of Gender Asymmetries in Book Reviews Within and Across Genres

Notebook with the analysis behind the paper.

Abstract:

While literary judgements are considered highly subjective or noisy, gender asymmetries are shown in readers' and reviewers' assessments of literature. This study adds genre categories to the examination of literary reviews. By considering both the gender of authors and reviewers, the media type of reviews (newspapers, online blogs), as well as genres, this analysis provides a detailed overview of the Danish review scene and sheds light on structural biases.
Analyzing how genres are reviewed in newspapers and blogs, we identify systematic trends that may be attributed to gender biases in reviewer judgments within and across different genres and media types. Our results show that the book reviews in Danish media are polarized between the reviewer genders and the two considered media types, upholding additional gender asymmetries in rating.