'Men were "bards" ... women NEVER were.'
Are you sure? How do you know?
How do I know? Because I have spent many decades ( more than I'm going to tell you ) not only reading and studying such ancient works as THE ILLIAD, THE ODYSSESY, and THE AENEID, but also being fascinated by ancient history and archeology.
Sappho wrote poetry, but she was the anomaly and she, unlike the ancient male bards, did NOT travel around and perform, as Homer and others did. In ancient Greece, women were, for the most part, neither seen nor heard; they were there for BREEDING. Oh, there were the temple prostitutes, regular prostitutes, the houri ( who were something akin to Japanese Geishas ), slaves, and priestesses, but they were most assuredly NOT "bards"; which is what Homer was.