http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16435529&ft=1&f=1001

Salient points:

• American readership is down for both genders as of 2002, at 59% having read one book that past year, from 63% in 1992



• On average women read nine books a year, men only five. (Year of survey uncertain.)



• Female readership outnumbers male readership in all categories save history and biography.
  
  Aside: I would have thought more men read 'how to' books. Then again, seeing some of the fixes out there, I guess not.



• Men account for only 1 in 5 fiction readers.

(Well, that could explain the demographics of those commenting on Sian.)

I suspect men watch more television, but that is beyond the scope of the above article. It is also something I would guess, if correct, the gap is decreasing. In other words, if men watch more television than women, the percentages are closer than in years and decades before.

Thinking about this, I see in movies and television, this is a pretty obvious trend. There are "guy films" and "chick flicks." There are "men's programming" and "women's shows."
Not all shows or films are one or the other. Some are neither and appeal to some segment to both audiences.

Maybe it's time for the term "women's fiction" to lose its stigma of "oh, that's Harlequin romances." Maybe it's time for the fiction publishers to realize who the readers are, and perhaps have their staff reflect the ratio. Maybe it's time authors take gender, one of the egalitarian utopia's biggest taboos, into account in their writing.

Thoughts?