I'm a sci-fi junkie myself of MANY years (too many to mention). I've been reading it for on the order of 50 years now. It is definitely my preferred genre, and I have a personal collection of almost 800 volumes.
To answer your questions:
What do you think of when this genre is mentioned, do you have a positive or negative mental image?
Definitely positive, as you can imagine. I find it invokes flights of fancy that take you beyond the plot structure of a particular novel/series in ways that no other genre can match.
Do you gravitate to this genre, or stay clear?
Gravitate, as in black hole.
What is your favorite piece?
Tie between Julian May's Pliocene Saga/Intervention/Galactic Milieu works and the first 5 of Jack Chalker's Well World series (which always requires a tip of the hat to Forbidden Planet/W J Stuart)
Do you have any treasured childhood memories on the topic?
My father loved westerns and sci-fi. I began reading the Tom Swift Junior books when I was barely able to read. Had the whole collection, which disappeared in an unfortunate situation
. I remember reading The Green Brain when it was first published; I would have been 10 or so.
How do you view the portrayal of women by the genre?
Getting better
... come a long way since Dejah Thoris; although Princess Leia seems cut from the same cloth.
How do you respond when you meet a woman with interest in the topic?
Always a pleasure to meet someone who loves sci-fi, simply a nice bonus if she's a woman as it's relatively rare.
List the first 5+ sci-fi works that come to your mind.
Isaac Asimov - Foundation/Robots series.
Julian May - Pliocene Saga/Intervention/Galactic Milieu
Jack Chalker - Well World series (first 5, anyway)
Jules Verne - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Marion Zimmer Bradley - the early Darkover books (pre-1988)