Er, the person who messed up HP was Leo Apotheker, who happens to be a man. If anything Meg Whitman is somewhat fixing his mistakes.
The men vs. women bit is nonsense.
But the problems started with Carly Fiorina, and has gotten worse from there. Mark Hurd didn't do HP any favors either, as the profits generated were at employee's expense (5% pay cuts, elimination of profit sharing, elimination of flexible hours), and insufficient R&D expenditures means there's no products long term for HP to sell. Yet he and a few select others, got incredible raises. Go figure.
The Fiorina+Hurd disaster particularly affected the company in how things were run. Specifically, they destroyed the managerial methodologies by which MR's Hewlett and Packard ran things (some were their own inventions).
There's a lot more detail as to what's happened, but it comes down to the fact that the BoD doesn't seem to know how to pick a CEO anymore, nor do they know how to put a succession plan into place. For example, they keep going outside of the company, rather than groom 1 - 2 candidates from within the company, that already have an experience track record in terms of HP's business, and loyalty to HP (ideally, it should be a deeper commitment than their pay and benefits package).
But sadly, Meg Whitman doesn't know squat about computer hardware, so I don't really expect much from her as an experience issue, not gender.
Two thirds of the current workforce would walk out if they get an equivalent job offer. Not a promotion, more money, ... same job, different company. It's that bad there now.