Women Untethered: Why Representation In MacArthur ‘Genius Grants’ Matters

Women dominate the recently announced list of MacArthur Foundation’s “genius grant” winners—for the fourth year of the last five, they constitute the majority of the list, earning 15 of the 25 slots.

It’s a far cry from the grant’s inaugural year, when just six women received the no-strings-attached monetary gift in 1981. In the 41 years since, the ranks have grown to include Susan Sontag, David Foster Wallace, Marian Wright Edelman and Ta-Nehisi Coates.