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The important thing to keep in mind, though, is that the women they were discussing were specifically women of the day. If you had been indoctrinated from birth that your appearance was your number one priority and responsibility, then yes, you would be uncomfortable, unhappy, distracted, and inefficient if you were thrust into an environment that ruined your appearance at every turn. If you had been taught subservience from day one, yes, you would not be good at taking the initiative. For heaven's sake, quite a few if not most of the women being considered for the position had been born in a time when women weren't allowed to vote. That speaks to the men of the day, yes, but it also speaks to the nature of the women such a system produces.
On the one hand, yeah, "women" were only like this at the time because of the culture in which they'd been raised, and there is nothing deterministically feminine about any of the stereotypes they were attempting to address. On the other hand, it was a reality that the vast majority of the women these men would be dealing with were, in fact, like this.
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