You’re right, it’s not about gender, rather universal principles.
The way it was explained to me, goes something like this (and sorry for using Hindu terminology, but it is the best we have for this purpose):
Brahman is the Unmanifest absolute, often called the Source in New Age circles. It is infinite potentiality, that has not yet come into being (though time itself is meaningless in this context, since it doesn’t exist in this context, neither does space). However, Brahman is alive and conscious, even if it isn’t a person, rather an impersonal consciousness that can only really be described by what it isn’t rather than what it is, because it literally “isn’t” from our limited perspective.
In order to make something out of nothing Brahman wills the universe into being, by splitting into two, which creates the dualistic universe. Opposites that complement each other (famously depicted in the Yin-Yang image) are born, the very first of which is Shakti and Shiva, God and Goddess, or in Christian terms the Father and the Holy Spirit (Ishtar or the Shekinah).
Whilst the Holy spirit is Feminine, it isn’t female as such, rather it is a universal principle, a force of nature that is present in everything. It is what creates. The Father may be the creator (and the destroyer), but the power by which he creates in the Holy Spirit. It is what sustains the universe and holds it together, through the power of Love.
Love isn’t an abstract concept here, but a force, that which enables things to exist and not fall back into entropy or annihilation, at least for a while. It keeps balance, harmony, beauty in nature and it is what connects everything and everyone to everyone and everything else.
The Holy Spirit is the purest manifestation of God’s Love and it dwells in the heart. It is by opening their hearts, that those that are manifest, Creatures in the original sense of the word, can reconnect with their original nature and realise that the Self is ultimately the Brahman and that it is the only thing that exists, everything else being an elaborate illusion (Maya).
I know this is a lot of syncretism in one post, but it is the best way to understand the Truth.