Boys and Heroines

I understand that the majority of readers (of all genres) are woman; but riddle me this...

Why do male readers like to read about male heroes, yet woman readers like to read both?
Or am I barking up the wrong feminist tree?
I read about male heroes all the time yet male readers seem to prefer to read about male heroes.  This seems to translate to young adult and middle grade fiction.  So how do I get them to cross over and be interested in girls - in a literary way.
How do you get a male reader interested in a female hero?  And please don’t tell me she needs to look like Lara Croft.
Don’t get me wrong - this isn’t hero bashing.  Two of my favourite younger novels have male main characters; Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl.

Can you ask any male readers you know if they would read a book where the main character is female or in a female point of view?  Please let me know any information you gather by commenting.  I'd really love to know if its just me who thinks this way.  If you have any pointers that would make a female main character interesting to a male reader, I'd love to know that too.

Thanks.