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The Gender Disparity in Reading Habits and Why It’s A Problem
How reading preferences as adults are rooted in gender stereotypes we learn as kids
I’ve always been a bookworm. From the day I was allowed to ride my bike to our neighborhood library by myself, I devoured books like popcorn during the previews: insatiably.
My brothers and cousins were less interested in reading when we were kids, but I thought it was just a quirk of my family. The boys played with Nerf guns while the girls sat quietly and read their books.
As I got older, I started to notice the divide more clearly. By the time I got to college, I don’t think I knew any guys who read books consistently or even at all outside of our assigned course materials. After college, too, I went several years before meeting a man who considered himself a reader.
What’s happening with the gender divide in the reading world? And is it a reflection of larger societal or patriarchal values?
How often we read
I work for a literacy nonprofit, so I know how bad the literacy crisis is in the US right now: around two-thirds of our nation’s fourth graders can’t read proficiently. Terrifying.
