Balvenie Thinks the Best Writers are Male

I have written a few times (e.g., 8/26/10, 8/27/10, 9/4/10, 9/15/10, 11/15/10) on the issue of gender in the publishing and judging of literature. We all know that women throughout history had a far harder time writing, being published, and being well reviewed, at least up until the past 30-40 years. The question is how much matters have or haven't improved during those years. An October 2010 Harper's ad (p. 5) for "The Balvenie," a maker of scotch whiskey, states that "For 160 years, Harper's Magazine has published fiction and nonfiction by some of the world's most renowned authors. The Balvenie is pleased to bring to you [on its website] a selection of these pieces from writers who have helped define world literature since 1850, including Horatio Alger, Hans Christian Andersen, Lewis Carroll, Winston Churchill, Joseph Conrad, Stephen A. Douglas, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Theodore Roosevelt, Sinclair Lewis, Mark Twain." The claim about "world literature" seems questionable when all the authors are American or British, except for one lone Dane. And the authors are all male and white! Not only male, but mostly of the tough, "manly man" variety -- e.g., Churchill, Conrad, Kipling, London, Roosevelt. Granted, most of these authors wrote during the days before there were a large number of women or minority writers being published in the U.S., where Harper's is based, but "The Balvenie" could definitely have found a few such authors in Harper's' archives if they had wanted to. Perhaps they were going for a masculine, men-sitting-in-deep-armchairs-in-a-men's-club-library-sipping-scotch vibe? And perhaps a woman author on their list -- or in that imagined library -- would disturb that cozy-but-macho picture? It's "just" an ad, and perhaps I shouldn't read too much into it, or take it personally, but each such experience is a reminder, a pinprick of annoyance, even sadness, and those pinpricks accumulate....