Putting the science into science fiction - part 2

Picking up from last week's blog post, I want to explore some of the cultural and feminist reasons why I now feel I have permission to write science into my science fiction.  That word permission is important. Women suffer from the Imposter Syndrome big time, and in the past that has led me to not  believing I had permission to write 'serious science fiction'.

Now I know I'm not alone in this territory.  The issues I struggle with are a struggle for other women writers too, some of them well qualified scientists.  I know this because of the Internet.  I can connect with them on Facebook or Twitter.  The world is no longer inaccessible to me.

Through discussions on social media I first became aware of Inposter Shndrome.  It was such a relief to know I wasn't the only woman who suffered from it.  Then there are the widespread discussions about the lack of women in STEM.  The lack of women in science and technology roles became visible, and it became a feminist issue.

The Internet has also allowed women to fight the issue of erasure.  Joanne Harris regularly tweets the history of many important, but forgotten women.  Over on the Tor.com site, a series of blog posts titled Fighting Erasure has detailed the work of women writing SF from the 1950s to the 1970s.  

Women have used the Internet and social media to force publishers to confront the issue of diversity in SFF.  There are ongoing discussions about the low number of submissions by women to science fiction and fantasy imprints.  I confess to feeling a bit irritated by those.  To date, I've made 195 submissions of eleven different novels, with only one request for the full manuscript, which went nowhere.

Before the Internet I took this as meaning my work wasn't good enough.  Now I know it's much more complex than that.  A rejection means that agent thinks they can't sell my work.  And part of that may be that they think they can't sell a story with strong feminist characters which tackles women's Issues.

SF is changing there too,  NK Jemisin, a woman of colour, has just won her third Hugo.  In fact, the majority of the 2018 awards went to women.  Women are here to stay in SF.

So now I know I'm entitled to put science in my science fiction.  I know that I am entitled to be here, and to write about the issues that interest and bother me.