Female novelists don’t need their own prizes. Let’s abolish them | Martha Gill

Barbara Kingsolver and others are no longer oppressed - they dominate book sales

There is a point at which all special treatment becomes patronising. And we have reached that point, I think, when it comes to giving women a leg-up in the business of writing fiction.

Genghis Khan sacked and plundered his way through central Asia in just 20 years; women have conquered the literary world with similar thoroughness and in the same time frame. They dominate - the empire is theirs. Do we really still need a Women's prize for fiction? These days you might as well ask if we need a men's prize for chess.

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