I had dinner with Robert Jordan and his wife once when he was on a book tour in NZ and I was working as a buyer in a bookstore.

He admitted he didn't feel able to write female characters so hence no ladies in his first book of "The Wheel of Time" series. He said he was going to use his wife to help him write female characters. That might explain why he did not have many and they might not be very believible.

BTW Robert Jordan was a pen name, not his real name.

I love Elizabeth Moon books, both her fantasy and Sci-Fi women characters are very real, strong but with flaws. And they continue to learn. Like real people do.