The whole women in music thing is interesting. It actually goes way back. There's a repeated pattern of amazingly strong woman makes her mark in music, a few more strong women get a chance to shine on the back of that, then the music biz closes ranks again and it's back to pop tarts for breakfast, dinner and tea.
For a bunch of people who like to claim to be liberal and progressive, generally (male) musicians are actually pretty sexist by and large. Things are better than they were half a century ago, but there is still one hell of a long way to go, and I don't see any sign of the music industry being any more willing to really treat women as genuine equals any more than they have in the past. All that's changed is that women in music now have many more good examples and are less willing to be treated like decorations than they used to be.
Punk didn't help all that much. Siouxsie, Jordan, and especially Debbie Harry (though Blondie weren't really punk) very much played on being a different and more powerful form of eye candy. Polly Styrene, Lora Logic, Pauline Murray, and Gaye Advert, rarely got much of a chance to present themselves to the world as anything other than token women when it came to any media attention. Including in most of the fanzines.
The problem is getting general acceptance that there really is no reason why any aspect of music should be male dominated. About the only thing that might be relevant is the sheer physical strength aspect that may always mean that more of the roadies shifting heavy kit will always be men. That's about it. Yet there's still often an assumption that the interesting thing about any woman making music is that she's a woman.
The people who have come closest to beating that, as far as I can see, are Tina Weymouth, Gail Ann Dorsey, and Kim Deal. Who all have the advantage that generally women are actually better bass guitarists than men (where's the tongue in cheek smilie when I need it?).
