The subject fooled me, I can get directions from any villager, not just women.
The hard time I have with these directions is when they tell me a village is close but it turns out to be hard to reach. This happens often when I'm near the large lakes and waterways. I will be told that a nearby village is just an hour's walk away, but it turns out that if the water's not frozen, I won't be able to walk there in a whole day of traveling. This would be a tougher problem to solve though.