I've had this comment from two instructors (who are not slow in picking up the faults either!). The first attributed it to the fact that I am a musician and thus want to treat the machine like an instrument, feeling what it wants to do and then helping it do so! (hmmmm!) Gender didn't come into it at all.
The second commented on this common attribute between women, saying that men tend to get more stressed about 'controlling' the plane in turbulence and refusing to acknowledge their subordination to the fluidity of the air. I found this quite an interesting observation for a fairly old fashioned guy to be making - you could interpret it as 'men are overcontrolling' or as 'women are more naturally passive'...
Perhaps we don't encounter much stigma in GA and private aviation because most people involved are at least a little bit unusual, and it takes more than gender to disquiet people, even if we are still the minority. Noteworthy though, that we are much more of a minority in airlines (3% for God's sake!!!! still, boardrooms have only 2% I heard) and the military than private flying. Where it is institutionalised, men rule.