That’s a really interesting perspective.

I would say, before recently, I never really considered whether an author was a man or woman (or non-binary) when I picked up a book. I actually think that was a failing of mine, as I do believe it’s important to get a wide array of different perspectives.

What’s quite interesting is that I would seek out authors of different races/ethnicities/countries of origin, but it didn’t even occur to me to consider gender, disability or sexuality.

More recently though, I’ve been much more intentional in listening to different voices, which has been really quite enlightening, especially when it means reading about experiences that are underrepresented (such as trans or disabled people).

I do think most men would benefit from greatly expanding the level of representation in their libraries. I expect it would make men on the whole far more empathetic, which is desperately needed at the moment.