A terrible instance of legalism.  The fact is, though, that unless the men are instituted in the formal ministry of Lector, there is no difference between the women and men who perform this ministry every day throughout the world -- and so your lay pastoral associate drew a false distinction between the women and men who proclaim scripture at Mass. 
As far as I know, there is no bishop who has extended the formal ministries of Lector an Acolyte to anyone who is not a candidate for deacon or priest; the ministries are required steps for them. The original idea of the revision of liturgical ministries was to de-clericalize what used to be the "Minor Orders"; however, by limiting them to men, the Vatican effectively re-clericalized them. And thus was born the "Extraordinary" minister.