The point trying to be made is we never saw women in actual "front line" combat roles until Jedi, and they mostly ended up on the cutting room floor. Even in the real world today, there is still a reluctance to put women into the same dangerous missions as men. (In the U.S. anyway.)
By way of comparison, the original Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers tv series gave us female pilots a few years prior to Jedi. I wonder if Lucas was influenced a bit by those shows in the decision to finally have female rebel pilots?
At least we saw a female pilot or two in Episode One.
And that people actually take the time to make snarky comments about how much they don't care boggles the mind. ;)