Another quote from a different review at AICN:

First, the Audience: I didn’t see any of the Universal people taking note of the gender distribution of the audience, but if they had, I think they would have been left scratching their heads and wondering if they were screening a sci-fi flick or a movie with the word Sisterhood in the title. The ratio was about 3-2 female (which for SF is basically unprecedented).

I didn't really note the gender balance at our screening, but I suppose it could have been 3-2 female. If that's the case, do you suppose it's because most Firefly fans came by way of Buffy and Angel?

eta: Also, is the reviewer right about this ratio being unprecendented for SF?

I didn't take note of gender ratio, but I'd guess at it being split pretty evenly. Very cool.

Also, is the reviewer right about this ratio being unprecendented for SF?

As far as I know, yes. Definitely.

SF geeks, and, in fact, geekdom in general, definitely skew towards the Y chromosome.

Yeah, but there must be some other SF fandom that has an equal or greater percentage of women to men.

I doubt it. I've been a member of a variety of fandoms and known people in an enough larger number, and out of all of them, my Joss fan friends are the only group who are more female than male. No one else even comes close to 1:1.

Farscape fandom online skews female, IIRC, but I don't know what the overall demo is.

I get another one! In this morning's e-mail:

Ok, thanks to you and A--- and S--- I am now a convert to the Firefly series. I have watched the 13 episode series (sob) and the trailer for the movie and I am so excited I am tempted to dig up my old Traveller books.

I have a lot of thougts and ideas I want to share about Firefly but I will just share some initial research I did after I was halfway through the series and thinking "where in the hell have I seen the captain and Book before?"... and no it wasn't Buffy.

So I get 1/3 of a toaster.

I can't think of any SF fandom that skews female overall. The online fandoms tend to, for some reason (women are chattier?), but other than the Jossverse the fandoms are mainly male.

Wait...most of the fans of the Vorkosigan books I know are women. But I'm not sure those count as sci-fi.

I think the sea-change towards more female involvment is partially because the content of the SF has changed, and partly because women are changing. I know the women around me when I was growing up thought both SF and fanship were big old wastes of time, not important stuff like getting married, having babies, cooking, and shoes.

Wait...most of the fans of the Vorkosigan books I know are women. But I'm not sure those count as sci-fi.

If those aren't sci-fi, I will eat my hat. As I was introduced to them by a woman, I'm willing to believe the possibility.

If those aren't sci-fi, I will eat my hat.

I waver, but there's a strong argument that they are romances in space. At least the later ones; the first one's definitely sci-fi.