I´m Michal. Greetings from Czech Republic in the middle of Europe. Michal is a definitively male name in our country :-) I don´t know any woman with this name. We spell it Michal (in English this is not possible, you don´t have a letter ch, the nearest way is like Mikhaal). The woman version in our language for this is Michala (Mikhaala) :-)
It's pronounced mee-HARL (raspy h in the back of the throat), H is a closer approximation than K, but I suppose it might be pronounced mee-KARL, following the anglicisation of Michael (mee-har-EL).