“I reject your ambiguity because it is clear that he is tapping into allegations of bigotry by noting that chazal were male.”
Under my reading he is tapping into the modern perception of things being sexist when they are said by men (because only women can ever be objective). In other words, it isn’t that he believes Chazal were sexist (at least not in the bigot sense), but that he understands that they are perceived as such, partially because they are men.