All Male Fiction

It is possible to create a fictional narrative about a man of action fighting male villains without featuring a single woman character. Am I right in saying that the only woman in John Buchan's The Thirty Nine Steps is a fellow rail passenger who speaks once as Hannay leaves London? In Dornford Yates' Blind Corner, Mansel's gang of six and "Rose" Noble's gang of seven are all men. The few "spear carrier" characters include one "innkeeper's wife."

What is Poul Anderson's record? A short story set in a spaceship might feature an all male crew or even a lone astronaut, like Garrard in James Blish's "Common Time." In both "Wingless" and "Rescue on Avalon," a young male human being rescues a male Ythrian without the presence of a female of either species. These are juvenile adventure short stories, one originally published in Boy's Life. I am remembering other stories but will not draw up a list right now. A usual ingredient of a pulp action-adventure story is at least a heroine. In the first Dominic Flandry story, this had to be an alien princess.

In a bygone age, women who were major characters were also stereotypes. The sequel to Blind Corner introduces a flawless heroine:

"...a tall, slim girl, very graceful and wonderfully made. Her face was lovely..."
-Dornford Yates, Perishable Goods (London, 1928), CHAPTER I, p. 14.

Etc.

The two women whom Flandry most wants to be with, Kathryn McCormac and Kossara Vymezal, comes across as superior women but also as credible characters.