Depends to some extent how recent a period you are talking about. I doubt students of Jane Austen or the Brontes would agree we have no historical evidence about the lives of women.
Some while ago I remember coming across a load of court records from early modern England in which women frequently appeared (memorably because so many of them were brewers). The Vatican records on which Ladurie built Montaillou would be a similar case.
I agree though that feminist historicists - like the Afrocentrists for that matter - sometimes drive one a little nuts.