Carlas, you might be interested in
this unofficial poll on men and women in relation to Ents and Entwives.
I believe from what I have read in Letters of Tolkien, that JRRT was showing what he thought were differences in relation to how the genders viewed the natural world. Not saying that women in general were bossy - perhaps your dad could look for that kind of thing in another book, maybe Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.
The posts on the link above were quite interesting, and showed that a) people don't mind contradicting themselves so long as it suits their ego, and b) that the idea that Men Are From Fangorn, Women Are From the Brown Lands, doesn't hold up either in Middle-Earth or in our own world.