Publishers are convinced they don't. They'll even design covers to appeal to one gender or the other.
As most of you are women, do you read many books by male authors? As, until recently, most books were written by men anyway, is this inevitable if you are a wide reader?
Do you find there are more "womensy" books available now, in the post-Bridget Jones explosion, or is that not the kind of thing you like to read?
And do the men on here read much writing by women?... As a male reader, I don't intentionally discriminate. Outside the obvious classics (Brontes and Austen), I have to look along my bookshelf and remind myself of the female authors I have enjoyed in the last few years: Penelope Lively, Margaret Atwood, Maggie O'Farrell, Anita Shreve, Catherine Fox, Catherine O'Flynn, Gillian Cross, Helen Cresswell, Helen Dunmore, Zoe Heller, Hilary Mantel, Libby Purves, Donna Tartt.
I'd rather poke my eyes out than read most of the stuff which is very "female" in its look and tone - all those "feisty" heroines living in London.
(God, all the above sounds like I am fishing for quotes for some crappy article - please be assured this is not the case!)