As a leader in the PMS Clan, the worldest largest all-female gaming clan, I can tell you that the issue of girls in gaming is something we have worked very diligently to address. I had considered writing an article for this issue on girls in gaming, but frankly, am tired of hearing the 'get over your gender' comments. (Exactly what I predicted would show up here... and did.)
The reality is that girls in gaming are typically harassed, regardless of how they choose to play, or are viewed as rare sightings in gaming. If you are so evolved that the issue of girls in gaming is a moot point and you don't see the big deal, then thank you - your perspective is applauded and you are the type of person we look to game and network with. However, diminishing the fact that it is still an issue with a lot of people does not provide an educated viewpoint of the situation and it takes away from the fact that we work to market and educate others who do not share your opinion. We don't claim that these situations are unique to girls in gaming, it is just the piece we are currently interested in working on.
The PMS Clan (snicker all you want but you can't argue with the marketing aspect of it) stands for Pandora's Mighty Soldiers, but formerly, in the early 2000's used to stand for Psychotic Men Slayers. The name was changed to follow a mythos that the clan leveraged that would promote community and friendly, positive environments for girl gamers.
We have over 800 girls in the clan with several hundred that compete actively as well as a brother clan that supports women in gaming. Our subscriber base is over 8000 and we recently partnered with NVision to attempt to break the world's record of girls in attendance at one LAN. You can visit our website, www.pmsclan.com to see the type of work that we do and who sponsors us.
I personally was a corporate executive who competes as a member of the clan (currently in CoD4 PC - feel free to add me to xfire if you want a match) who quit to pursue a Masters in Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon. The ratio of guys to girls is shifting and depends vastly on the market you are looking at, but the rise in gamers is in the over 30 female crowd with females playing (and making the buying decisions) on more casual games. Personally, I will stick with hard-core FPS and tournament play, but I do enjoy Puzzle Quest from time to time.