So just for giggles I thought I'd ask DALL-E, my favorite graphic-generating AI, to create "photo of modern woman, middle age, sitting comfortably on a chair" and yup, four women, all with knees together, all in skirts.

Hmph.

Second pass: "photo of modern woman, middle age, wearing pants, sitting comfortably on a chair". Better! Three of four women with knees apart, and the one with knees together was sitting sideways on her chair and would have looked uncomfortable if she had NOT had her knees closer together.

So DALL-E thinks it's a pants thing. Apparently.