so we're dealing with that both as we try to break our subject matter into to the regular canon and as we try to open up our own canon to more diverse voices
Yeah, so, for example, a woman who writes science fiction in the context that you just explain could have a minor literature work in the process, or a homosexual man... but of course there are other things to take into account (according to Deleuze and Guattari:
“The three characteristics of minor literature are the deterritorialization of language, the connection of the individual to a political immediacy, and the collective assemblage of enunciation. We might as well say that minor no longer designates specific literatures but the revolutionary conditions for every literature within the heart of what is called great (or established) literature.”
You'd think Science Fiction as a genre would be the most open to other voices precisely because of its "ghetoized condition", even from outside of regular canon it still has to break certain barriers, traditions, beliefs... I guess every little piece of literature has its own mechanisms by which it inserts inself inside or outside of canon.
Well, it has taken a fair amount of ass-kicking and name-taking, but I feel like we are making progress. The majority of awards in the field are going to traditionally-marginalized authors now. They're still lagging in sales, because the most popular authors are still the ones who market primarily to tech-obsessed young men, but the core community has become much more inclusive.
That much is true, it's taken some time but progress is visible. I am glad that the field is becoming more and more inclusive, that also keeps the genre alive, it allows it to transform and evolve.