So for centuries authors have written both female and male characters extremely well.Shakepeare, Dickens, Eliot, Austen, Bronte sisters etc. etc.
however I think literature has become more gendered in audience with the advent of chick lit and hyper masculine novels like Jack Reacher with a host of aubiographies from ex SAS/boxer/sportsmen types. I don't actually think this a direction we should go in? I think it's a little worrying that in a typical high store there is now a divergence between 'male' and 'female' literature.
do you think modern authors are becoming a little more reluctant to write in depth characters from the opposite sex as presumably this is more of literary challenge? Is there sterling in modern society that it is authoritative to write about another lender's lives experience in much the same way as writing about a character from another ethnicity may not be construed by some as entirely ethical?
I do hope this isn't the case and authors in general do continue to write about other genders at a dee p emotional leve..