When looking back at an old story I had been working on a few years ago I noticed something very disturbing in my own writing: I had only one character that was a woman in the whole plot, and, even though she was the main character (MC), her entire being in the story was revolving around the men. That’s when I started using the Bechdel Test in my writing.It’d be hard pressed to find many people who do not know what what the Bechdel Test is these days, but it still happens. In fact, I’m more than sure the short topic is never brought up in certain places at all, but that’s for other reasons. So, before going into why writers should use the Bechdel Test in their reading and writing, the test should be explained first. The Bechdel Test is named after Alison Bechdel, whosecomic strip it first appeared in, and the basic function is to determine whether women have an active role in the work of fiction. It was originally started, and still maintained, as a test for movies, but there is no reason it cannot be extended into other forms. There are three rules:There must be two women in itWho talk to each otherAbout something other than a man.That’s it. That’s all there is to it. Really. Of course, there have been other additions to the rules since its spread, such as the two women must be named and their conversation must last at least 60 seconds, but I’m sticking to the basics here.But what does the Bechdel Test have to do with literature? Well, a lot actually. Especially in genres such a sci-fi and high fantasy, women tend to be very scarce and yet we still seem to overlook it simply because it is so easy to. So, using the Bechdel Test might be something we may want to start thinking about when we read or write to test ourselves in whether what we are reading is giving active roles to women and if it reflects real life at least in this very overly simplistic way.Yet, the Bechdel Test isn’t enough, and we need to recognize that as well. The Bechdel Test is very easily achieved - and that’s why it is so important to point out when a work doesn’t pass this very low standard. There are other things that should be accounted for when it comes to our women characters. Do they have their own story arc or purpose? Are they driven by more than a man? Do they matter to the plot, without using violence against women to propel it? In all, these are just examples in which the Bechdel Test isn’t enough to show that a work of fiction is “woman-friendly.” But that has never been the point of the Bechdel Test. It has always been about showing the way in which so many works of fiction still don’t even meet this minimum.The very first step in passing the Bechdel Test is having more than one character that is a woman. That should be easy enough, right? But just looking at a general US high school reading list says otherwise. As a reader I have grown so accustomed to adventure stories being from the male perspective, or romance stories needing to only have one female character to stay on track, that I didn’t realize that I was starting to do these things in my own writing. So, what did I do? I populated my story with women. Now, I can tell you of at least four female characters that hold their own in my latest Work In Progress (WIP). I’ve built an entire plot line for a book with solely female MCs. This doesn’t mean that my male characters have vanished to the background, in fact it feels entirely different. With more women the story feels like it can relate to the real world; characters react to each other more realistically, you see more honest interactions, and the plot is vivid with different storylines that don’t trivialize one gender or the other. There is a large challenge as a writer, especially when it comes to writing consciously and with diversity, to be aware of your own biases as you write.When thinking about why we made have trouble finding books that pass the Bechdel Test, we may want to turn an eye to publishing houses - especially The Big 5. BetaCandy wrote an article aboutfilms schools actively try to stop screenwriters from passing the Bechdel Test and after reading it I couldn’t help but wonder if our publishing houses are doing the same. We’ve seen disastrous and blatant ways large publishing houses like Harlequin Teen continue to perpetuate harmful ideas, so it feels almost too expecting for them to purposely choose their projects that would not pass the Bechdel Test for the same feigned reasons we hear about the moves; “because they won’t sell” or “they don’t want it.” It is these thoughts that lead me to believe that it really has to be in the writer’s hands to at least hold themselves to this simple standard. Just the same it is the reader’s job to call out these books. You should hold them accountable for what they did or didn’t do, and using the Bechdel Test is just one way small way to test them.In all, the Bechdel Test is not about saying a film is sexist - though it could very well be, or not - because the whole function is about something else entirely. The Bechdel Test, at its core, is a very modest and overly simplified ways of pointing out to each of us the ways it is so utterly common to leave out an entire portion of the human population. The test is used to point it out to us so that we can see it, and only then  are we able to start working towards something more. There are rare days where I realize even my day to day life doesn’t meet the Bechdel Test - but I want to make sure my writing does.