I flew with the first women pilots in BA. They overcame a lot of BS to get there and were all fully competent pilots and very strong characters. I remember how awful the male BA uniform looked on them, and how they soon had it redesigned to suit the female form.
Those first female pilots were just as passionate about aviation as most guys. I remember having breakfast in NY with a female F/O talking only about aviation. Knowing that she was genuinely interested in the subject, and not just pretending to be was a revelation to me.
However airline flying makes demands on pilots that some later women pilots seem unable or unwilling to meet.
Perhaps some will remember the ex glider pilot who was accepted as a BA cadet. She qualified as F/O and started line flying, then soon met and married a Capt, and became pregnant. She took pregnancy leave on full pay for nearly a year ... then decided to get back to flying again via a retraining course ... shortly after returning to line flying she became pregnant again ... and took yet another long pregnancy leave. BA wanted to get rid of her, but BALPA (my union at the time) defended her and won. I had conversations with some of the original female pilots over this issue. All were all of the opinion that this young woman had nearly destroyed all the gender equality that they had painfully achieved.