I didn't know Weib was considered perjorative - although I've never had occasion to use the word.

The English word 'man' used to mean 'person'. A female person became a 'wife-man', i.e. a woman. So the word 'mankind', for example, doesn't (or didn't) imply that female humans don't exist.

For a less antiquated example, imagine that the text introduces the girl (das Mädchen) Fiona, and then persists in referring to her as "es", because the word Mädchen has a neutral gender.

"Fischerweib" could work. Doesn't sound familiar to me either, but it's a valid compound word at least...