It wouldn't surprise me in the least. Especially in the past. Quite often women who achieved greatness weren't able to have children. I was really surprised to find out that Marie Curie had children, maybe she had an extremely supportive family network. Anita Roddick's daughters say they rarely saw her. I would say it was more a combination of being squashed by males and a lack of children. Take Beatrix Potter - her brilliant paintings, botanically and anatomically correct paintings of plants and animals and funghi were first rejected by Kew because she was female. Of course, once she became famous, they graciously accepted them.
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Isn't it "truly great" to be a mother? 
Did she give any examples of these 'truly great' women?
Helen Rumbelow in today's times says '...something we all know but can't bring ourselves to say out loud: children get in the way of greatness."
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