There was a similar discussion on Harriet (poetry blog) during my tenure--one of the journals came out with a discussion of the lack of women represented in avant garde journals and anthologies. Looking at the numbers, the suggestion was, to me, also that part of the problem, anyway, was on the submission end (in the few journals that provided both, this was clearly the case)--women weren't getting their poems out there as much. And yes, I do think a variety of factors--including childcare and family responsibilities, but also perhaps some self-censorship--were to blame. Anyway, I said as much (about the disparity being partly how many women were submitting) and was in some cases excoriated in the comments section (by women)--including people I had written favorable blurbs for, etc.--for blaming the women. Which wasn't my intention--just that numbers on the publishing end don't mean much of anything without statistics of submissions--and I was hoping to encourage women to get out there more, and to point some light on some of the challenges.
I have never had any problems with editors or publishing, but I do think that publishing under my initials (androgynously) probably helped, er, initially. I have a number of early letters from editors addressed "Dear Mr. Stallings."
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