I met Evangeline Benedetti once, had dinner at her apartment along with her then husband who I met in class at Columbia. She was the first woman to get a job with the orchestra. This was 40+ years ago.
The orchestra itself is now full of women musicians. It is so because of sheer talent of course and for a long time (not sure how it is now but I assume the same) auditions for positions were held behind a screen so they would be just on what the selection team heard and not what they saw. No matter - this is a very hard job to get and that gender bias if there was one took a while to crack.