Some very interesting thoughts. I suppose from my point of view, I'm not at all surprised that there is sexism in publishing. I have encountered sexism in nearly every other aspect of life, so why should it be absent in publishing? The question is what can/should an author do about it? Is it dishonest to masculinise or neuter your name in order to take advantage of a gender bias? By doing so, are we sanctioning the sexism? Or are we merely playing the game, as it were--doing what needs to be done to get our work out there? I don't know the answer. I don't think there is one right answer. For me, personally, it would be easy to neuter my name just by dropping the feminine ending...but I'm not sure I could do that. For me it would feel like sanctioning the sexism. When I talk to my lovable but extremely sexist farmer neighbors, I don't try to hide my gender, rather I try to show them that I can be just as ribald, sharp, and knowledgeable about current soil conditions as they are. When the wimpy shop assistant at the local ag supply store asks, "You sure you don't need help with that?" I respond by tossing the 40kg sack of grain over my shoulder, smiling, and saying, "no thanks. I've got it." Hiding my gender isn't an option in person (well, I could probably manage, but what a pain!), why should I do it in print? For me, the pleasure lies in blowing the stereotype out of the water. Of course, maybe if I get really desperate to publish...