>>466425>The female characters that do appear all have unique personalities and are treated with respectThat's another thing I liked, personally. Aside from a handful of lechers and assholes in the male cast, the main characters are respectful towards women.
But on the other hand, when I read that post I mostly thought about the Alliance side. It's supposed to be more progressive, both socially and economically, yet there isn't much difference in the roles women have, although the fact that they're allowed in the military and that they can be influential political leaders at least makes it better than the Empire in that regard. And even though it was due to their husbands' power/influence, Frederica and Hildegard did end up becoming leaders themselves.
Even though it takes place in the future, that doesn't mean the author gave the idea of new/more progressive socioeconomic or political systems much thought. For the most part, he just used his own knowledge of history to create a war setting based on that. And this setting seems to align with a "cyclical" theory of history, whether intentionally or not, so it makes sense in context that women in the Empire would be treated the same as they were in the periods that the Empire was based on.
That's not to say that I wouldn't have liked more relevance and more female characters.