>"Were there female military pilots in the original series?"

Short Overall Answer: Yes, but. ;-)

Long Canon Answer: Yes.

• Sheba, daughter of the legendary Commander Cain, is an ace pilot. She was the premier pilot on the Battlestar Pegasus; on the Galactica, she can't compete with the matchless Starbuck.
• Many civilian women, including Serina (who was a reporter), become shuttle pilots as the Galactica flees after the annihilation of the Colonies and civilian survivors got sucked up into military roles by necessity.
• At one point, so many military fighter pilots are dead or injured that the former-civilian shuttle pilots have to get trained to fly fighters.
• Athena, Adama's daughter, is a bridge officer, the only member of her family (except her civilian mother) who has never been a fighter pilot, but she has past certification as a shuttle pilot. She jumps in with the shuttle pilot training group and becomes a fighter pilot... but she's not good at it and never flies again (on-screen, anyway) after the staffing crisis passes.
• Serina is shot by a Cylon on a mission as a fighter pilot. They get her back to the Galactica, but she dies.

Medium Meta Answer: It's 1978 OMG. They make SUCH A BIG DEAL about allowing women to be fighter pilots and it's SO SEXIST and there's even a SKIN-TIGHT SEE-THROUGH PRESSURE SUIT SCENE. (The male pilots are never, in the whole series, seen with these supposed pressure suits.) ~hysterical laughter~ ~deep breath~ We do have 3 named women pilots besides the regular opening-credits characters, and one of them is black.