If he had been 35 years old with a promising career in medicine ahead of him, I would be tempted to agree. At 76 and with an exemplary, highly distinguished career behind him, I'm more tempted to give him the benefit of the doubt that he probably didn't feel that fightng this politically-motivated mau-mauing would be beneficial to his institution or his legacy in any way. With age and achievement come the luxury of being able to choose one's battles.
As an older white male standing against the arrayed legions of shrill, strident, hysterical and firmly-entrenched militant feminism in an academic arena, he would be very, very much alone and he wouldn't stand a chance. The only thing that he'd get out of it would be a heart attack and lots of stress and unhappiness for his family, not to mention a cloud over his legacy.