Yeah, I reacted to that too. How does it make it any better than if it was all about physical strength?

I thought that they meant "No, it turns out it's not a physical strength thing, it's physical/mental, which wouldn't work against women the way strictly physical might. But they just picked so few women in the first place that even fewer survived the Change, just like most of the men died but there were so many men chosen it still left a lot."