Well, she was hired at a time when United was under the gun from a 1976 court decree in a case filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a 'diversity' agency of the federal government.
United had committed to a 'double quota' hiring strategy to increase diversity and was sued in 1988 by the EEOC for not being compliant with the earlier ruling:
Eeoc Hits United Hiring Plan - Chicago Tribune
As a result of the 1988 suit, United accelerated diversity hiring and adjusted requirements to more aggressively promote inclusivity. Separate interview programs were set up at the old Stapleton airport offices for so called 'EEOC' class (a legal term from an earlier lawsuit) applicants.
Technical knowledge tests were abandoned since some groups did poorly due to cultural bias and lack of educational opportunities.
The skills evaluation ride was no longer given in an airliner sim because that gave people with large plane flying experience an unfair advantage. Instead a little Frasca trainer desktop box with a Cessna type panel was used for the evaluation.
Pilot hiring manager Nancy Stuke published separate sets of average experience levels of successful EEOC and non-EEOC applicants.
Inevitably, some folks with very low experience levels were hired in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Of course, we all started somewhere and after a few thousand hours, you either get it or you don't.
I believe the captain in this incident probably had at least a few hundred hours of flight time, much of it in the family's 1947 Luscombe, and a commercial license when she was hired circa 1989. Also, quite possibly her father knew UAL V.P. of Flight Ops Hart Langer from the Pan Am days which may have helped.