Everyone's entitled to an opinion. It's my opinion that Merle Streep's opinion is stupid. I certainly wouldn't have called anyone out based on his reply to that young woman. This was a different time from today's standards and his response was the generally accepted attitude of the time from which that letter was written.

I do agree with Sherri - he could have used his considerable influence within the industry to advance women rather than stick with the status quo but he didn't really do anything differently from any other studio at the time.