>Just saw this article, which is relevant to this conversation:
>
>http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Tech-companies-haven-t-gotten-past-sexism-1-0-5845691.php?cmpid=twitter-desktop
>
>Tamar

Clearly, the individual(s) who did this were completely unprofessional. There's no excuse for it and those individuals need to be called out.

I think one of the qualities of a particular technology space/community space/etc is how well they self-police. I think I can say with confidence that if this happened in any of the tech communities under the Microsoft umbrella, it would be dealt with quickly.

If I received a swag bag with totally inappropriate stuff (and what they put in the swag bags definitely fits that), I'd complain to the organizers/source, and I'm a male. I don't view this as sexist nearly as much as think the source was just plain stupid.

Again, I can't and won't speak for areas outside that space. I have no doubt that many of them are just as reputable and just as concerned with conduct.

But citing specific instances still doesn't support the "regular basis". If it were, the following would be sufficient instances of devils' advocate. Once in an office where women greatly outnumbered men, I sat through a birthday party with a pornographic cake designed by the female office manager. Another time an important request I made from a busy female boss...."can I have a second?....need to ask something, hopefully it'll be quick" was met with her grabbing me by the shoulders (in front of other co-workers) and saying, "Oh, but Kevin, I wouldn't want it to just be a quickie with you".

Stupidity and careless actions aren't limited to one gender. Does it happen more with men? Yes. But I still think it's a bit of a leap on the conclusions the author made in the second half of the article.

On the "females are discouraged from computer science at an early age" - it's not incorrect but misses the mark. Certain girls AND boys "are" discouraged because of a misconception that a career in software means you have to have the chops in math and science.