It's difficult to comment on.
OH has had lots to do with scientific research, supervised PHDs and suchlike.
If somebody had good ideas, that was good, didn't matter what gender the person was.
As long as they did the doctorate/job.
When he was in his commercial employed position, he got very p@ssed off at anybody who didn't do their work for whatever reason. If the women burst into tears and did their work, fine, otherwise....... they weren't doing their job.
Women on maternity leave were seen to be a total waste of space, if they didn't do their work.
This situation didn't happen with female PHD students, they were focussed, they just did things. They wouldn't have been sponsored for their doctorates otherwise.
It has to be said, many males in scientific research do have an old fashioned view towards the female of the species.
I don't think Sir Tim should have stood down. The main thing, in a university envornment has to be to get decent scientific work, it doesn't matter what gender does it.