Are things getting worse for women in publishing?

Voices from within an industry overwhelmingly staffed by women speak out about senior management that appears increasingly dominated by men

• Have you experienced a gender gap in publishing? Tell us your stories

When Edie and Eddie started work as junior editors in the same corporate book publisher, they had much in common: firsts from Oxbridge and career ambition. And a passion for books and ideas. When Edie saw her role model moved out of the chief executive’s office to be replaced by a man, the two joked about what it took to get to the top.

But as both observed the same thing happen at one publishing house after another, the joke wore thin. And Eddie, frustrated at the lack of promotion, changed. “He donned a suit and began to walk and talk like the men he saw getting on in the business and suddenly things changed for him,” Edie recalls. “It was as simple as that.”

You get the sense with the remaining women in senior management that they have gone as far as they are going to go

Related: Self-publishing lets women break book industry's glass ceiling, survey finds

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