Before you answer, let us try to focus on women before we think at the many other men who might have been influential.
I, for one, cannot stop admiring Madeleine Biardeau‘ s work.

I do not know well enough her work on the Mahābhārata (which was characterised by the attempt to try to make sense of the various upākhyānas as part of a single text). You can read about its methodology (with a focus on her understanding of orality and her resistance to any “scientific” approach to critical editions) in Colas 2012 (Journal Asiatique 300.1). Charles Malamoud’s obituary also focusses on Biardeau’s work on the epics.

What I have really read, used and appreciated, is, however, M. Biardeau’s philosophical work. Her Théorie de la connaissance et philosophie de la parole dans le brahmanisme classique (1964) is still a classic about Indian philosophy of language, which joins philosophical depth and careful acumen in the translations from Sanskrit of Mīmāṃsā, Vyākaraṇa and other texts. Similarly, her translations of Vācaspati’s Tattvabindu, of Maṇḍana’s Sphoṭasiddhi and of Bhartṛhari have not become the standard translations, preventing further attempts, (chiefly) because of not having been written in English but in French. ALthough I might disagree with some of her choices (most notably: her translation of varṇa with “lettre”, letter, which I think is inaccurate and partly misleading), I admire her way of combining accuracy and breadth. She translated whole works, like G. Jhā and several scholars of the past, while at the same time making sense of each sentence.

Did you ever read M. Biardeau’s essays, books and translations? Which one do you like or dislike more? If you don’t know her, which other women influenced you more?