What's the female equivalent of "suitor"?

I think one day the word for this will be suitor, just as now actresses are sometimes simply called actors. Until then, it seems that female suitor is the most common phrase.

This example is from a New York Times book review of An Available Man:

He picks it up to hear the clamorous, intrusive voice of a female suitor, attempting to break in on his grief. But he’d rather iron the blouses of his deceased wife, Bee, “as a way of reconnecting with her when she was so irrevocably gone” than date any of the women now scurrying in his direction. Bee, on her deathbed, had predicted this fate: “Look at you. They’ll be crawling out of the woodwork.”

It may be a bit of a dated term, but suitress would be the female equivalent.

(I'm not sure about the collective noun, though. Instead of "a host of suitresses," you might want to use bevy instead).

I don't think this will work out.

Being a 'suitor' is a male prerogative. It's a relic of an era when men were the ones who went out to look for wives and women stayed at home waiting for men to ask for their hand (hands?).

So being technically correct here would not make much sense.

It's somewhat like the word 'temptress'. Traditionally this is the role of a woman. To call a man a 'tempter' just doesn't taste quite the same. That's assuming that you roll the words around on your tongue before saying them.

Still make use of the word suitors for women who are about to propose to men (with a ring in her right hand and on her knee). It will still be okay if you use it as part of the vocabulary, trust me.

I have heard of a woman who was a superviser or boss at a school referred to as a headmaster once. More so terms like doctor, band (plural), or pilot are used interchangeably for both genders.