Okay, so IS the New York Times sexist?

After all the Franzen-Freedom hoopla, Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult imply yes. NPR’s Linda Holmes has some great reflections on the dustup, while Slate tries to break it down by the numbers:

Of the 545 books reviewed between June 29, 2008 and Aug. 27, 2010:
—338 were written by men (62 percent of the total)
—207 were written by women (38 percent of the total)

Jonathan Franzen

Of the 101 books that received two reviews in that period:
—72 were written by men (71 percent)
—29 were written by women (29 percent)

What does this tell us? These overall numbers pretty well line up with what other studies have found: Men are reviewed in the Times far more often than women. One crucial bit of information missing, of course, is the percentage of all published adult fiction that has been written by men vs. women. As for the double reviews, men seem to get them twice as often as women.

Check out the full spreadsheet of data here—and Slate‘s discussion of the big question: “Is pop fiction written by men more likely to be lifted out of the ‘disposable’ pile, becoming the kind of cultural objects august institutions like the New York Times feel compelled to pay attention to?” And if you have time, contribute to the study by helping to analyze that data.