Husband-wife collaborations

Husband-wife collaborations are here described with husband first because it is the name commonly ascribed to such collaborations regardless of their nature, and because the name in fact describes the public face of many such collaborations: with the male partner receiving credit for the work.

Close friends and relationships often foster creative and working products. In societies fraught with sexism, however, such personal-working relationships carry their own freight of sexism, and the fruit of such relationships is similarly tainted.

For instance, it has long been understood that "behind every great man there has to be a great woman", and that what may be perceived by the public, contemporaneously or through the lens of history, to be the contributions of an individual man are often in fact contributions of a working relationship, but credited to the male member of the relationship. This is often fostered by the practice of necessity of women disguising their gender in order to overcome sexist bias, as, for example, by adopting masculine or gender-neutral pseudonyms; a woman and man partnership may choose to adopt a single masculine pseudonym. In addition to practical reasons for concealing their own contributions, women may also have their own internalized sexism with which to contend.

Examples of collaborations

• Laura J. Mixon and Steven Gould's collaboration on Greenwar (1997 novel): self-described as "a true collaboration" with "no senior or junior writer", and drafting and content described. See Mixon-Gould website.
• C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, who collaborated as "Lewis Padgett" and "Lawrence O'Donnell"
• Nathalie Henneberg and Charles Henneberg, who worked together on books published solely under his name; after his death, Nathalie continued publishing significant works, at first under a joint name (Nathalie-Charles Henneberg) and then eventually under her own (married) name, Nathalie Henneberg.
• Michael Moorcock and Hilary Bailey, worked together on The Black Corridor