The New Yorker Gender Tally looks at The New Yorker magazine contributors by gender. If you’re new to this project, it got fully underway in 2014, and here’s what you need to know:

Women are always listed first, followed by men, and then a catch-all number representing work by studios, collaborations of different genders, or my inability to confirm a person’s gender.
People who are non-binary were added to the Gender Tally in 2019. A count for non-binary is not included if no people who are non-binary are reported. It appears after the count for men.
Gender is determined by name and verifying pronouns.
Previous summaries by year are available at jessicaesch.com.
David Remnick has been editor of The New Yorker since 1998. In an email last Spring 2020, he said close to 65 percent of the editorial staff was female, and women comprised 60% of senior leadership. (Deirdre Foley-Mendelssohn was named deputy editor in May 2020 (a position Pam McCarthy held since 1995). Dorothy Wickenden has been the executive editor since 1996.

Takeaways

I have marked up every issue of The New Yorker for seven years. I scribble in the margins, calculate totals section by section, and then transfer those numbers to a growing spreadsheet. It’s not always enjoyable to count something you love but have no control over. But it is rather addicting.

The results weren’t pretty in 2014. Nor the next year. Every year, though, showed improvement. Bit by bit. Gender representation in The New Yorker has improved steadily. Ground is both gained and lost, but it trends toward a more equitable gender balance.

2020 was no different. Seven years of counting are worth it just so I can confidently relay to you that change happens. It probably is not linear, but, in this case, it tacks toward progress.

While I was prepared to give The New Yorker a pass this year, I didn’t have to do so. Somehow, they managed to make it seem like business as usual, even though it was anything but. High praise and gratitude all around to everyone involved.

I’m often asked what success looks in terms of gender equality in The New Yorker. My response is the same as when tracking the numbers for the year: you have to see how it shakes out over time. Like gender, it can be wonderfully fluid.

Read on for my analysis of each section.

Covers

Françoise Mouly. Photo credit: Jeffrey Beal [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

Françoise Mouly has been the covers editor since 1993.

Women logged nine covers in 2020, two less than 2019 but the same as 2018 and 2017. There were 48 issues in 2020, and women illustrated 19% of them. For perspective, women had three covers in 2014 and four in 2015.

Barry Blitt had the most covers in 2020 (six). Pascal Campion and Kadir Nelson had four. Richard Maguire, Christoph Neimann, and Chris Ware each had three. Two women had two covers each in 2020: Diana Ejaita and Grace Lynne Haynes.

Illustrations

Christine Curry has been the illustration editor since 1983.

There were 114 fewer illustrations overall in 2020 than 2019 (395 vs. 509). Last year marked the first time the total number of illustrations in The New Yorker dipped below 400 since 2014.

While total illustrations by women dipped from 2019 after a perpetual climb from 2014 (49), the percentage of illustrations by women increased slightly (47% vs. 45% in 2019).

In 2018, I began tallying illustrations and photographs in the “Goings On About Town” section separately from those tied to the main articles. The almost perfect women-men gender split (49%) in 2018 increased to 61% the following year (126 of 205). While the percentage bumped to 63% in 2020, it’s important to note that the number of illustrations in this section was nearly halved due to the pandemic closure of many New York City venues. There were 118 illustrations in this section in 2020 (vs. 205 in 2019). Six were by artists who are non-binary (vs. three in 2019).

The number of photographs in “Goings On About Town” remained consistent with 2019 (33 of 80 vs. 32 of 85 in 2019). However, the percentage by women increased overall (41% vs. 38% in 2019 and 25% in 2018). One photo each year was by a photographer who is non-binary.

Compare both to the gender breakdown of the illustrations and photographs accompanying main articles in 2020: 27% and 35%, respectively. The percentage of illustrations by women paired to a feature was consistent with 2019. However, eight more photographs by women were included in this section in 2020 (26 of 75 vs. 18 of 72 in 2019).

Lastly, “Spots” are the series of illustrations spread throughout the magazine that accommodate page layout. They continue to be a male bastion. 13 of the 47 issues containing Spots illustrations in 2020 were illustrated by women (28%). There remains much room for greater representation here, but this percentage is the highest yet and far better than 2014 when women illustrated three (6%).

Photographs

Joanna Milter has been the photo editor since 2015.

Photographs were tallied for the first time in 2018 thanks to Daniella Zalcman and her Women Photograph project. Of the 192 photographs printed in 2020, 79 were taken by women (41%) and one was by a photographer who is non-binary. The magazine included 15 more photographs by women and 14 fewer photographs in general. It’s worth reiterating that 26 of the 75 photos accompanying a feature story were taken by women (35%). This is up from 25% in 2019 (18 of 72).

Humor and Cartoons

Emma Allen has been the humor and cartoon editor since May 2017.

While the percentage of cartoons by women continued to climb, 2020 marked the fewest total cartoons published since the Gender Tally began in 2014 (664 vs. 733). Numbers remain skewed in favor of men, but Allen delivered cartoons by women on par with 2019 (270 vs 273 in 2019).

The impact of Allen’s involvement shines bright in light of the three years of eerie consistency that preceded her tenure (41% in 2020 vs. 16% in 2016, 15% in 2015 and 2014).

Allen’s arrival also marked a rise in cartoon collaborations across genders. (Previous tallies included same-sex collaborations with their respective gender.) Seven of the 2020’s 664 cartoons were collaborations of women and men (vs. 15 in 2019). In 2018, there were two.

Roz Chast. Photo credit: Irving Public Library [CC BY-NC 2.0], via Flickr.

Cartoons by Roz Chast appeared in 37 of 2020’s 48 issues. This miraculous volume for a cartoonist who is a woman is tempered by her presence on all but two issues in 2019. Usually an absence of a Chast cartoon means she’s on the cover or has a full-page illustration elsewhere in the magazine. In 2020, Chast was on the cover once and had four full-page illustrations. She was absent from only six issues.

Liana Finck was the only other woman to publish 20 more cartoons in 2020 (32).

In 2020, 51 women had cartoons published in The New Yorker. This was two more than 2019.

Also of note, cartoonists who are non-binary were published in 2019: Ellie Black (seven) and Madeline Claire Horwath (one). Four cartoons by two cartoonists who are non-binary were published in 2020: Lillie Harris (three) and Black (one).

In 2020, there were 40 installments in the humor section, “Shouts and Murmurs.” Women penned 10 of the 40 (25%), the lowest percentage since this Gender Tally originated in 2014 (27%).

Talk of the Town

Susan Morrison replaced Lizzie Widdicombe as “Talk of the Town” editor in March 2019.

“Talk of the Town” lead articles are tracked separately. In 2020, 21 of the 47 lead articles were by women (45%). The previous year marked the first time in the span of this tally that women wrote more lead articles than men (58%).

Women wrote more non-lead pieces than men for the first time in 2018 (97 of 191). The last two years, however, have walked women back from that high point to 46% in 2019 and 43% in 2020.

Features

Dorothy Wickenden has been the executive editor since 1996.

The gender balance of the features, or the main articles, in 2020 was the same as 2019 (41%) and a tick away from 2018 (42%). All are welcome increases to the previous plateau (37% in 2017 vs 38% in 2016 and 36% in 2015).

Fiction

Deborah Treisman has been the fiction editor since 2002.

Of the 49 short stories published in 2020, 20 were by women (41%). This is the lowest number of short stories by women since the category was added to the tally in 2015 (22). The highpoint came in 2017 when women wrote 26 of the 49 short stories (53%).

“Briefly Noted” is near the back of each issue and contains four book reviews for which I am always grateful. After three consecutive years of editors reviewing more books by women than men, half of the 184 reviewed books in 2020 were written by men and two were by writers who are non-binary.

Translators of books in the “Briefly Noted” section were added to the Gender Tally in 2017. In 2020, 13 of those 24 books were translated by women (54%). This number is down from 16 of 27 translations in 2019 (59%) but more than 2018 (12 of 27).

Poetry

Kevin Young has been the poetry editor since 2017.

Ah, poetry. This section has sustained the Gender Tally since it was added in 2015. It remained so in 2020 where 46 of the 94 poems were written by women (49%) and three were by writers who are non-binary.

In 2019, women wrote 54 of the 97 poems published in The New Yorker (56%) and the tally rested at 54% for the three years prior.

The 7th Annual New Yorker Gender Tally Is In: 2020 Year in Review