'What you (and others) are expressing is a typical technician's prejudice -- "if you aren't knowledgeable about my job then you obviously can't do yours".'

It's more like "if you aren't knowledgeable about my job then how on Earth are you going to make good decisions about it and provide guidance when it's needed".

I can only imagine that you've worked on some very big projects, given your talk of splitting roles and your lack of respect for the need to understand the project you're meant to be managing. Without a doubt there are many things that are common to managing all projects and these will be the same whether it's a construction project, software development project or attempting to rid the world of AIDS.

I can imagine that if you work on big enough projects then you won't need to have a lot of domain-specific knowledge - it can be a full-time job working on the really big picture ideas, and you have other people who handle the true management and implementation work. Let's bring this back into perspective though - we are talking about someone starting out on their own trying to get their first project management gig. Is it likely a fortune 500 company is going to be giving her a call asking her to manage their next big project? Of course not. The jobs she might be considered for will be smaller gigs where the company wants a single point of contact that will be responsible for overseeing the whole project. This means she will have to make a lot of lower-level decisions based on experience and understanding.