Yes, women stop making babies at 50. And yes, the speed-kissing technique will still gain both men and women skill, even if the woman's over 50; it's a good reason to save parenting for last, when going for JOAT, since it's so easy to gain skill in.

As mentioned, I personally believe it's a roll of the dice. I read almost everything posted to the VV3 forum, though, and I've never heard of any way to increase your chances, except perhaps to ensure that BOTH parents have the skill you're aiming for.

I think it's much safer to just make sure every kid can be taught by the chief at least once, to cut down on the slackers you have to train; picking parents to inherit skill just seems so hit-or-miss to me, that the time you save training fewer slackers is just not significant compared to the time you invest in trying to have more skilled children born.