Jewishfeminist..I will review the source again because I did not notice Tosafot,Rosh and the other meforshim mentioned.
I have great admiration for Rav Henkin but I daresay that his view that “banav’ means BOTH males and females is just speculaiton, as if the gemoro wanted to mean sons ONLY, they would have to choose the exact same words.
Actually, the reason why the meforshim insist that it is “banav’ only is derived from the gemorro a page later that talks about teaching the sons to read in the Torah, and this is, manifestly, only for boys only (unless you say that this gemoro predated the gemoro in megillah that disdaloowed women to have an alyah)