Hmmm...this is a question I've asked myself a lot. Especially because broadly, I do see definite preferences in what women and men like to read and write, and what they get out of fiction in general...not just creators; the differences between fangirls and fanboys intrigue me.

I think it's a mistake to say these preferences are "strictly" one gender or the other; people are individuals, whatever their sex, and there's always going to be some people who break the mold. But on average it seems that women are more character-focused, men more plot-focused. Female writers are more likely to explore what a character is feeling, male writers more likely to look at what a character is doing...though obviously there's a lot of overlap there!

--Also, when it comes to gender inequality in writing, I do have to point out that what is sometimes considered the first novel was penned by a woman (Lady Murasaki's The Tale of Genji - which really is romantic/soap-operatic thinly veiled RPF, proving that fangirls really haven't changed that much in a thousand years XP)

It's definitely intriguing, but would be difficult to investigate with any degree of objectivity because it's so heavily weighted towards value judgements, I suppose?

I wanted to write a dissertation on this sort of thing but in terms of the language that men and women use, so less based on style and more on precisely what it is that is said. I was thinking specifically of the language used in sex scenes, because I'm a slasher since 13 and helpless against it, (>:D) and what the language says about the various power dynamics and suchlike.

I do wish I weren't such a rubbish student. XD

There are no "strictly male" or "strictly female" types or styles of writing.

I totally agree but I think there's a large number of people who don't see it that way, who buy into this assumption. Nicholas Sparks has made an enormous amount of money by writing romance novels and yet people will insist that romance is a female genre.

And I think this influences the answer to your third question. If you assume that some types or genres of writing are inherently gendered, then you will automatically hesitate to pick up that which is "not for me". I think one leads to the other - if someone doesn't think of certain types of writing as gendered he/she would be more inclined to pick up different genres, no? All IMO of course, I could be wrong!

I think this discussion is doomed to get nowhere. (Though it can still be fun!) It is like most such discussion in my opinion, not susceptible to a clear, clear, definitive answer. I find it akin to the discussion of whether there are careers/ professions men are better suited for then women. Statistically speaking, for example, men as a group outperform women as a group on tests of mathematical and visual/spatial ability. (And while gender bias, etc. etc. may exist in testing instruments, I am skeptical that this fully explains this particular difference.) So perhaps engineering, computers, physical sciences, etc. are an area "men are better at".

But then we get to particulars. You may well know a guy considerably more gifted in math than I. But, speaking again as a statistician... it is not likely. (Also not relevant on a practical level, there are enough jobs out there for people with my particular skill that it is entirely appropriate for me to work in such an area).

In other words, I do believe there are sex-based differences in our species in many, many areas - but the variation between individuals, even individuals of the same sex in those same areas, is considerably greater.

The problem with this sort of discussion is that you can really only answer with personal feelings, rather than any sort of empirical data, because the empirical data is so heavily biased. By that I mean, that there's a reason female sci-fi authors often hide behind a pseudonym or a single initial, and why you rarely see a male name on a romance novel -- because publishers don't think they will sell as well. So, success in certain genres is pre-determined by the marketers, publishers and producers long before the novel hits the stands, much in the same way TV content is assumed to hit a certain market, or movies. The moneymakers long ago decided that certain genres sell to certain genders, and the other gender is dismissed. This means, while it would be great to point to statistical or historical evidence to demonstrate an answer to this question, it's not going to be reliable. Not until that changes. (Do I think it's changing? Nope. Men still think they're the only ones who like sci-fi. Check out this latest headline on Entertainment Weekly's website about Star Trek's great opening weekend gross: " Star Trek's solid-A grade shows that word of mouth could be strong enough to bring in fans outside of the franchise's usual demographic (i.e., people who weren't alive in the 1980s...and women) as the weeks go on." I love the "and women." I went with six other girls to see it, and not one guy. There were tons of women in the audience—I'd even say it was about 50/50. Why is this not translating to the men in charge? Or writing newstories like this one?)

Anyway, all the above is really intended to say is that, you can't rely on anything "factual" to demonstrate that women write differently than men, or are attracted to one genre over another, or write better in another genre or another, because we don't have any un-adulterated evidence to give us an answer.

So, you can only go with personal feelings. And…because I do love these sort of discussions, here's mine. To me, there is no difference in the way men and women write. I think individuals write differently from other individuals, but gender is just a contributing factor in that, not the only factor. We all write from the perspective of our individual biases, and while women often come from a different set of experiences than a man in the same situation, they don't stylistically write any differently.

Rather, I would say that I write very differently from, say, my best friend NotTasha. Her style screams at me every time I read something of hers, and it's not my style (which is darker, wordier, more action-based and less witty). that's simply because she has a different background and sense of humor from me. And we're the same gender. I don't think it would be different if she were male--it would be different simply because she's a different person than I am.

The other two questions suffer from a similar lack of reliable empirical evidence, and historically forced gender bias. Look at the first few decades of the published novel. The first and, easily, one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written, was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. And yet, women are supposedly not the ones who write or enjoy sci-fi. Did she write differently from male writers? Could you tell it was written by a woman? No, to both. Same question, modern day: SGA fanfiction is written almost exclusively by women, working in a science-fiction medium, so we assume only women are writing. But they're not. And when a man writes a fanfiction, can you tell? No.

I think the gender bias is something we're taught to believe, not something necessarily inherent. My father adored sci-fi, so there were tons of novels scattered around the house. I picked one up when I was a kid, because I wanted to be like dad, and I loved it, just like I loved watching Doctor Who with him after dinner on PBS. If he hadn't liked sci-fi, and there were no novels in the house or Doctor Who to watch with him after dinner, would I be watching and reading and writing sci-fi now? Probably not. But I did, so I do, and it had nothing to do with my gender.

So, there you go. Thank you for letting me play in your sandbox!