I think this is probably both caused by, and in order to take advantage of, personal subconscious bias. Not only do people expect assistants are going to be female, but actually notice when they're male. It's just another small facet of the huge gender inequality problem. Worth noting that you can rename clara if you pay enough and the only competitor that I know of (https://x.ai/) has male and female options.

I am bothered by this - it's a completely unnecessary reinforcement of a stereotype. I don't understand why an androgynous name (eg Alex) or a neutral name (R2D2) is not an option, if the software is not up to recognising two different appellations.

And it can create a cognitive dissonance if you allow people to modify half-assedly - eg. it annoys me that I have to ask Siri for help when I have set Siri to be an Australian male voice.

x.ai does offer a male persona.

Their initial email states, 'P.S. If you'd prefer a male assistant, my brother Andrew would be happy to schedule your meetings. Just CC [email protected] on your meeting requests instead of me.'