I went through Airborne School in 76, women definitely received preferential treatment from what I heard. Didn't see anything, because the Black Hats were dropping me for pushups every chance they had...lol, they didn't think highly of butterbars like me.
Had several classmates that earned their Ranger tab, they tried to talk me into Ranger School. I knew my limitations, I was not a runner, and I didn't work well with less than 2 hours sleep a night for an extended period.
However, at my first unit at Hahn AB, that's what I did during Tac Evals. I was in the Wing CP for all four days, listening to the zoomies griping about 12 hour shifts. It was the nature of the beast, the other officer in my unit with a TS clearance was the Battery Cdr. He had a more important job, i.e. running the unit.
Airborne school has significantly changed. No more “running to Alabama”, break area procedures gone, etc. I hear you on the running thing and sleep deprivation. There have been articles on that as well in terms of SWC dropping standards: