Been a while since this was posted, but my thoughts echo some of what Melissa was saying about gender roles. But I would point back towards how males and females are raised and how we are taught to read books. I never had a male English teacher. I never read a modern book that dealt with male problems. I did though read lots of books that dealt with female problems. I'd say there is a cycle effect going on where females publish and teach books to females and few male gain interest because the books are not relevant to them.

Unfortunately, publishing will not reform itself. It reeks of the insularity of bureaucracy; "go-along-to-get-along" people like "Bob" who've conformed their entire lives, inside the system, and have no idea of the excitement literature is supposed to generate. Rebels or caretakers? If Bob's closed and smug world doesn't change, it will eventually, like General Motors, collapse of its own burdensome weight.
(The first step to save the system might be to kick out all the Ivy Leaguers.:)

I've always treated mathematics, science, reading and writing equally. Like mathematics or science, reading and writing books is an incredibly complex and analytical process. Instead of dealing with numbers and pie symbols, people who read and write deal with letters and punctuation marks. Like the products of math and science, books are heavily applicable to everyday life. Books have changed the social and cultural and political and economical landscape and math and science has done the same thing. The process of solving an equation is not unlike the process of finally understanding the symbolism in [INSERT ANY SYMBOLIC TITLE HERE].

I don't think women dominate the industry because the NYU class is such a small sample of this giant world we live in.

Call me young and ignorant (I'm 18) but gender has nothing to do with it. We just think it does. This is what has been drilled into our heads and we're so blinded by it that we can't see anymore.

Class dismissed :)

Julia and King Wenclas,

I am a black female. I will in no way sugar-coat the fact that publishing tends to be an elitist caste system indeed. I've worked for a publishing company up until recently, and while I had so many people championing me, there were one or two people who still believed in the old-guard strongly enough to open my eyes to the elitism. But again, that was only a couple of people out of a dozen who recognized my hard work and talent. Just gotta push through it :)

One day I'll have to do a blog post about my experiences and observation.

@indiebookworm (twitter)

You don't attract anyone, really, outside your tiny elite New York world. If the litbiz is shrinking, it's because you're completely out-of-touch with the rest of the nation.
Publishing doesn't have to be "an incredibly isolating field." But the closed way it's constructed, the people who inhabit it, and the way it operates ensures this.
I remember the first Manhattan lit party I attended, crashing with an underground buddy an Open City party. The crowd was very chi-chi and monied. I don't recall a single person of color, though there was Eurotrash everyplace.
Outside the high-up window of the warehouse the event was held in, I saw a homeless guy rummaging through a trash bin.
Out-of-touch?
Do any of you ever notice what a caste-based place your magical island is? When is this ever discussed or noticed?
Regarding gender: in the lit underground there are several kick-ass females, but more men. Maybe if yoiu opened your exclusive world to outsiders you'd achieve more balance.
p.s. There is nothing "on the edge" about this enterprise. It's a flat-out lie to claim it. If you belive it, then you're even more isolated and clueless than you seem.
Have a good day.

I agree with the reasons everyone else has given, especially that the publishing industry is not extremely well-paid; it can take many years to move up the job ladder; and the industry expects that you will put in 110% of your life at your job - all of which can be intimidating unless you are passionate about your books (and, as mentioned before, so few men read much at all that we can hardly expect them to devote their lives to books).

I also think that the young men starting jobs now are not looking to publishing simply because they want to do something bigger, more meaningful. Publishing can be an incredibly isolating field - just as reading is an incredibly isolating activity. (You can discuss books in groups, you can read aloud to others, but in the majority of cases, you only read alone.) The men leaving college now have grown up with the feeling that they can change the world (which, admittedly, can increase a tendency towards apathy: there's so much pressure in changing the world!), which seems to encourage them towards nonprofits, towards politics and law, towards business - fields where they have been shown they can impact the world. Publishing can affect thought and thus the world, but often it's regarded as the snobbish older sibling of the media machine, and what testosterone-fueled dude wouldn't prefer to work in, say, television?

Maybe the ladies entering publishing now are actually more determined than the gents: with so few entry-level openings in the industry, it must be a pretty cutthroat competition. Perhaps the men know they could do better in a different industry.

I am one of those 90 females, and I think one of the reasons we are mostly female reaches back to the age old tendency for males to gear towards math and science, while females lend themselves to english and history. While there are plenty of marketing, sales, and financial opportunities in publishing, men immediately associate publishing with english, literature and reading, and therefore stray away. - Great observation though, and I also hope there is a place for me your shrinking business! Thanks so much for speaking we enjoyed it immensely!!!

I was wondering if the ratio of men to woman at he publishing seminar translated to the workplace. Then I looked at the Harper Studio photo. Is it a problem? Maybe we should ask Sarah, author of the recently published BOYOLOGY.

@Melissa: totally agree. I would also add race into this conversation about diversity in book publishing...

1. publishing errs on the side of "artsy" in the corporate world, and therefore less masculine than say, construction or banking at Goldman Sachs :(
2. less money to be made in publishing compared to other professions that require some sort of post-secondary training. i could elaborate on this in terms of gender roles in society, stereotypes, etc. but i'll leave that to you all to reflect on.

i really really wish there were more men in publishing industry, at all levels and across all departments!

I think it's because MEN fall in love with their eyes and WOMEN fall in love with their ears. Men look at pictures to fantasize and women read to fantasize. (Fantasy being entertainment) That's my anecdotal guess! Very simplified observation on my part, I know.

I was gonna write a long winded post about being a boy. Perhaps I'm outdated, but I had a great 'creek life' growing up. Lots of frog catchin' turtles, fish, crawdads, snakes, (had eight once in the basement - along with 23 turtles). I loved my creek days and I was only outdone in 'boy-ness' by HUCK FINN - who had an entire damn river!

Haste yee back ;-)