The History of Women in Sci-Fi Isn't What You Think

Conventional wisdom holds that science fiction was written almost exclusively by men until the advent of feminism in the 1960s and '70s. But when Lisa Yaszek, who teaches science fiction studies at Georgia Tech, went digging through old magazines, she discovered a very different story. "I was so surprised to see how many women there were in science fiction before women really came into the genre in the 1970s with feminist science fiction," Yaszek says in Episode 346 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "I kept uncovering these anthologies with all of these women who were clearly well-known and celebrated in their day, and who I had never heard of." In fact, women writers were relatively common throughout the pulp era, and the proportion of women readers was even higher.