Well, I don't want to be naughty and say right out why we don't see much formal poetry by women. But let's just say that up in northern climes female formal poetry is full of elves. A male poet will in fact put a troll in a poem now and then, and as with Fröding, give it a clever twist. But you seldom see cute elves running around in male poetry. Another big topic among female poets is God (how does that mix with elves, btw?). Then we have the usual: summer, nature, love -- all in rather pale, unmale, shades. The nice thing is, it doesn't look like female formalists revel much in nationalistic, patriotic poems -- which is one of the worst trends among male poets (depending on the time period, of course).
Free verse? I just tried out a free verse poem; I liked the poem in original, but it didn't work out for me in English. And the biggest reason is that the poem had no rhythm. And that's a real conflict. Maybe a free-verse poem has a bit of rhythm in original, but that rhythm, of course, goes right out the window when you're translating. Would I put a free-verse into formal verse? I've always heard that's a big No-No, though the opposite is done all the time.
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