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No average human woman has ever been given any recognition
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Hmm...I'm not quite sure what you mean by this, but if you mean what I think you do, then let me say three words to you....Joan of Arc. Led a national army before she was seventeen...good enough?
Anyway, I wonder if part of the problem in these discussions isn't that they are taking place among people who are used to the logic of computer games. This weapon plus that armour plus so many power points and that experience level gives you strength to defeat this monster....
I'm not sure how useful this very logical, gaming-type viewpoint is to understanding Tolkien's world. It was a literary creation, which as many here have pointed out, underwent many changes over the years. So one minute you can have a High Elf defeating a Balrog in just a short battle, and in another, a mighty maia like Gandalf take a week to defeat one in underground combat.
Why - because it makes a good story, I suppose, and Tolkien was a storyteller.
But that is not to say that Tolkien's power hierarchies are not intriguing. How, I always wondered, did a mere Maia like Melian create a stronghold that could keep out Melkor, mightiest of the Valar? Because Tolkien willed it so, is the obvious answer, but still, it did always puzzle me....