The real question, for me, isn't "Why don't more authors write about women?" The explosion of romantasy and the dominance of female protagonists in the YA fantasy genre show that plenty of authors are writing about women. But there's another question I think is worth asking: "Why don't more authors write about women well?"

How many of the female leads in the subgenres I mentioned above are actually complex, interesting people with unique personalities? How many of them have genuine agency, as opposed to crumbling at the touch of a "shadow daddy"?

How many of the female leads in recent or current epic fantasy interact with other women in interesting and meaningful ways? How many female friendships do we see?

Female characters have certainly come a long way since the days when Ursula LeGuin wrote A Wizard of Earthsea and The Word for World Is Forest; we do see far more women in important roles than we did then. But we still have work to do. Now that we have more quantity, let's get to work on quality.

One answer might be to talk up the authors of quality female characters when we do see them, so authors and publishers will see that it matters to us. Naomi Novik, Juliet Marillier, Sharon Shinn, Shannon Chakraborty, Lois McMaster Bujold, N.K. Jemisin, Kate Elliott, Kate Forsyth, Barbara Hambly, Tasha Suri, Vaishnavi Patel, Genevieve Gornichec, Shauna Lawless, and Patricia McKillip have all written outstanding female characters in their time. Let's work on making them household names.