No doubt there is some sexism at play in the response.

But if her credentials are solely being a professional managers - and not being “one of us” - then unexpectedly demoting three top members of the in-group at once and also publicly painting them as uncaring about their subordinates at the same time is terrible professional management / internal politics.

As much as anything, firing (or demoting people) is as much about how everyone left perceives you as a leader. When it must be done, it should be evident to everyone that it had to happen. Coming off as capricious when playing with other peoples careers / cash flow is going to cause big problems, as it has here.

Edit: lol at downvotes for suggesting that publicly humiliating people is bad management. Might be good politics but it’s bad bad management.