The only problem, even then, was that management usually (if not always) called all the shots. Phil Spector - who served as The Ronettes' manager - was the most notorious; his heavy-handed approach did not sit well with many of the people he worked with (including The Beatles' Paul McCartney, who was upset over Spector's treatment of his "The Long and Winding Road"), and his poor reputation with women reached a peak after he shot dead actress Lana Clarkson February 3, 2003.
These girl groups almost always just sang -- didn't play their own instruments, until The Go-Go's changed that in 1981.
~Ben