I have a little feminist theory going here, bear with me.
This topic (boys vs. girls) comes up pretty frequently on the boards. Someone posted that for police work, male german shepards are preferred to females, because the males are more independent, and will search an entire area unprompted, whereas the females keep coming back to check on their partners. I also remember a boxer breeder telling me that "bitches are always more submissive".
I'm wondering if there is a tendency to associate a breed's undesirable traits with the female. Yorkies are now companion dogs, so we usually want the sweet, cuddly ones, which we say are the males. For boxers and german shepards, independence and dominance are valued, so even though these are almost opposite of what is thought to characterize male yorkies, these are still considered the male qualities.
I think these qualities tend to be subjective. For instance, I think Thor is an extremely needy dog, but on the other hand, he has no separation anxiety whatsoever. If I leave, he tries to come with me, but if he doesn't get to go, he takes a nap. And when I get back, he doesn't get up to greet me. He's also the least "biddable" dog I've ever worked with. He simply will not perform a command like "Sit" unless he knows there's something in it for him. So he'll Sit for his food, to get his leash off, to get a treat, but if he doesn't see an immediate reward coming, he's staying on all fours no matter what.
Also, while he loves people, he's extremely timid about everything else. I wonder if I would consider this less of a problem if he were a delicate little female (rather than a delicate little male).
Of course, I could be wrong.
What do YOU think?