For the record, a players avatar is rarely taken into consideration, at least for me.
I joke about how terrible Lalafells are (and boy let me tell you...) but at the end of the game if you've done your job well it matters not. I rarely look at someones gender, they'd be lucky if I see their race. Let's not even get started on facial attributes! The game is designed to be played fully zoomed out, and not spent looking at finer details.

Basically, I'm a DPS and you're a tank you're getting my commendation for allowing me to actually participate, unless you're terrible. Then it goes to the healer.
Flip-side I've gotten 5,074 commendations, mostly as tank or healer. The trend to comm either the flashiest DPS, highest DPS, or the tank/healer seems pretty prevalent and has been since the start of this feature.

So I don't mean to dismiss your studies, but character gender very likely has little to do with commendations as a whole. But by all means take my data.
5,074 commendations. Female Miqo'te.