male/female picture for users withou own picture

Hi, I'm editting user-picture.tpl.php and trying to find out how to add female.gif and male.gif to user without own photo (avatar)

Still missing something in the code..

if($account->picture) 
{
print $picture;	// this is working of course
}
else
{
$account = user_load(array('uid' => $account->uid));
$gender = check_plain($account->profile_gender);
print $gender; // prints okay Male or Female according what user fills in profile (using core profile.module)

if ($gender == "Male") // this condition is not working
{
print 'path to male.gif'; // this is just to know if its working right, not actual path to the picture
<?php
}
else
{
print 'path to female.gif';
}
}

many thanx for a help..