I was trying to remember whether I've read any Gene Wolfe, and I think it was so difficult because I only started The Shadow of the Torturer, but gave up partway in.

Mind you, this was back in the days when all the SF to be had was whatever was on the library shelves: no internet, no bibliographies, so my reading diet was waste not want not, and it took a lot to make me nope out.

If I remember right, it wasn't because of the sexism (that would have been invisible to me back then), but because of the bleakness, and because I just didn't like anyone in the tale, most especially the depressed protagonist.