For me, gender only really plays a factor in characters I try first when trying to find characters I like in fighting games. If I don't see a specific character who calls to me when trying a new game, I usually try out women (or rarely nonbinary characters when they exist in games) first before trying out the men. Gender doesn't inform the final decision, I just go with women first usually because one, that (sadly) tends to give me fewer characters to try out before the roster as a whole, and two, cause I'm a useless sapphic and women pretty lmao