Well, women don't age very well, especially in politics. Its just a fact of life that people don't like to see women aging before their eyes. If men have some grey hair and have wrinkles, they think these men, previously boyish and young-ish have aged gracefully and matured.
For women, its a whole new ball-game.
Aside from all of that, her actions and words are puzzling and bewildering. When your boss does all of these and stonewalls previous actions and words just done a few days ago, you have to wonder where is her sense of professionalism in the first place. By at least, she should have realised that to spare people's embarrassment, and to keep the official record straight, either she do it behind closed doors, and after a few days release a joint statement with the affected people or do it completely open and then stick to your positions, come hell or high water.