In the early 90s, when I was being published by Bantam, my editor asked for a publicity budget for my books (Deverry series, Katharine Kerr) because they were doing so well in the UK and Australia. She was told by the head of the department "No, because men don't read books by women." AT that time, a survey by a UK newspaper showed that 60% of fantasy was read by men. IOW, the other 40% didn't count to this dork.

It's probably the reason I'm writing UF now.