Date:Wednesday, 28 October 2026
Women make up a large share of the book publishing workforce and authorship market, yet leadership roles continue to be disproportionately held by men. At theFrankfurt Book Fair 2026, UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO), through the “EU 4 Gender Equality: Together against Gender Stereotypes and Gender-Based Violence” programme, in partnership with the International Publishers Association (IPA), brought together writers, publishers, and gender equality advocates to discuss the publishing industry’s role in promoting more women in senior positions, both within its institutions and through the stories it helps bring to readers. Here are five reasons, shared by five speakers, why more women are needed at publishing’s decision-making table.
Gvantsa Jobava, President of the International Publishers Association. Photo: UN Women / Zino Peterek
Reason 1: Women need opportunities to tell their own stories
“You often hear people say that women are everywhere in publishing, and that it is a female-run industry. In many ways, that is true.
But even without comprehensive surveys, we know that women remain underrepresented in senior leadership positions. And this happens everywhere, driven by a range of cultural and social factors.
We see so many talented women leading every part of the industry, and they deserve to hold leadership positions. At a time when authoritarianism is on the rise and women’s rights are often among the first to come under pressure, it is even more important to join forces to advance gender equality in the publishing industry.
It is also about stories. We need to think about whether we are giving women writers the same opportunity to bring their own perspectives. For a long time, many stories about women have been told from a male perspective. So, we need more books written from women’s standpoint, giving women the opportunity to tell those stories themselves.”
Gvantsa Jobava
President of the International Publishers Association
Katharina Raabe, Editor, Suhrkamp Verlag, Germany. Photo: UN Women / Zino Peterek
Reason 2: Women have the expertise but not always the authority
“The book business, from bookselling to publishing, relies heavily on women. They are people working closely with authors, shaping manuscripts and connecting books and authors with readers.
Publishing is an intensely communicative profession. You must think about how to launch and how to pitch a particular author’s book. You have to create a resonance space. You have to create an audience. You have to find readers.
Women working in this field have these skills, and they bring them to their work every day.
They have the expertise, but they do not always have the power.”
Katharina Raabe
Editor, Suhrkamp Verlag, Germany
Slava Svitova, Co-founder of the feminist independent publishing house “Creative Women Publishing”, Ukraine. Photo: UN Women / Zino Peterek
Reason 3: Gender equality, even in publishing, benefits everyone
“At our publishing house, we have a slogan: “A woman with a book is dangerous.” When we first appeared on the cultural map as a feminist publishing house, some people couldn’t understand why Ukraine needed one. They would ask, “Isn’t that a way of separating yourselves from men?”
But we don’t want to separate ourselves from men. We are for men as well.
Feminism is for all of us. It’s not just for women. We need a healthy society where women and men know who they are and respect one another. In a way, our mission keeps us going.”
Slava Svitova
Co-founder of the feminist independent publishing house “Creative Women Publishing”, Ukraine
Melissa Fleming, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications. Photo: UN Women / Zino Peterek
Reason 4: Because women’s voices need space to be heard
“Words are power. Voices are power. Stories are power.
For publishers and storytellers, one factor matters more than anything, and that is the information environment. Yet women’s voices are being silenced.
Artificial intelligence is making gendered disinformation and online abuse easier to produce and spread. This abuse primarily targets women in public life, shaming and silencing them.
A UN Women report published earlier this year found that 41 per cent of women human rights defenders, activists, journalists, media workers and other public communicators self-censor on social media to avoid abuse.
This has a chilling effect: censored words, silenced voices, untold stories. But we have a powerful antidote, and that is books and publishing. They give women authors a platform to raise their voices and bring different stories to the world.”
Melissa Fleming
United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications
Olga Osaulenko, Programme Manager, “EU 4 Gender Equality: Together against gender stereotypes and gender-based violence.” Photo: UN Women / Zino Peterek
Reason 5: Diverse women’s stories deserve to be told
“Numbers matter. It matters how many women are published, how many hold decision-making positions and how many have the authority to influence decisions.
We need to hear the perspectives of different women, including women with disabilities, women displaced by war, single mothers, and women from national minorities. All of these stories are valuable, and women must have the opportunity to tell their own stories.
This is not a call for these stories to be perfect. They should reflect the imperfect nature of their characters, their complexity, and the freedom to be complicated.
Publishers help determine whose experiences reach readers, which is why their role is so important.
Alongside asking how many women are represented, we also need to ask: “Do they have the authority to tell their own stories? And are those stories given the opportunity to be heard?”
Silence definitely affects progress. And in publishing, this silence has consequences beyond what institutions say publicly. It can also shape the stories that reach us.”
Olga Osaulenko
Programme Manager, “EU 4 Gender Equality: Together against gender stereotypes and gender-based violence”
