I much prefer the male iron greaves to the female (can we say stripperiffic?) but it's a little silly looking for my girls to have bulges in their trousers. Nothing transphobic or anything, just kinda not what I was going with.

WARNING: Males with issues, look away.

Is there any way to flatten out the 'area' (a la Bowie) out so it looks like a woman is wearing them?

Hmm, like the iron greaves here? http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34242 The body mod I use (TGND) uses modified male greaves for the iron armor, and I think it looks awesome. You could always download that, and just nab the iron greaves mesh if you don't want to use a body replacer, or switch the one you do use.