IrishScribbler said:My understanding of women's fiction is that it deals with women's issues....relationships, mental/emotional health, etc. Usually it's written by women, but I've read women's fiction written by men, as well. The biggest issue is that it is about women's issues. I've seen articles that say romance is a subgenre of women's fiction, but personally, I disagree because I think an aspect of women's fiction is that it challenges norms and patriarchal values traditionally assigned to women. Think Sylvia Plath, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood....
Does that help?
Dark Sim said:But aren't those "issues" many of the same ones that men have - relationships, mental/emotional health, etc? The way men may respond might be different, and sure, some of the issues might be individual to women, but there are many things that a woman feels/wants/needs/faces etc that are not purely gender-specific.
maestrowork said:These are women-specific issues such as breast cancer, childbirth, domestic violence, single-motherhood, pregnancy, etc.
Guys have their "issue" books, too, but they're usually listed as something else -- coming-of-age, lad lit, etc. The reality is that there are not that many "guy issue" books out there because men normally don't pick up those books -- the market is really small.