Jerome explains that the idea for CWILA originated in her when she read Natalie Walschots' blog in which Walschot counted the number of reviews Michael Lista had written in National Post's poetry column in the last year, and found that out of fourteen books reviewed, only two were authored by women.
[2][3] Motivated by this incident, Jerome set out to expose the disadvantages experienced by female writers, which are fostered by contemporary review culture in Canada.
A month after its inception, CWILA had a membership of more than 50 volunteers who would go on to prove that there was, indeed, a significant gender bias in Canadian literary culture.
[1] By 2012, CWILA counted 400 members from various disciplines within the literary community, and had established the position of Critic-in-Residence.
[4] The CanLit Guides notes that the CWILA's 2012 inaugural Count revealed a significant gender disparity in books reviewed by men.
While the count showed an increase in the proportion of reviews written about books authored by women, it was observed that a gender gap still existed in the Canadian literary community.
Additionally, CWILA broadened their horizons of reviews by including French-language publications into the mix.
Furthermore, the CWILA Count for 2014 noticed a disparity among the genres being reviewed in books, particularly in non-fictional works.
[11][12] In 2013, as a part of their mandate to encourage a female perspective in the Canadian book review community, CWILA instituted the position of critic-in-residence.