Mary Doria Russell, author of
The Sparrow. Sorry if it was mentioned already.
Female authors may be underrepresented in specific genres like SciFi and Mystery, but they've been
dominating fiction publishing for at least a decade. Often this is blamed on the fact that females comprise the largest number of readers (by a huge margin, with regard to fiction), but some have suggested that publishing houses have played a big part in creating this trend, by favoring books geared towards women.
Why Men Don't Read: How Publishing is Alienating Half the Population
On a different note: there seems to be a discernible bias in favor of male authors when it comes to reviews. Books written by men appear to get better review coverage by large publications like NYT.