Because I've been a travelling independent, I've been able to see a number of environments and have witnessed all sorts of sexism - some blatant and some subtle. I've been on interview teams, even as a contractor, where I heard some of the most incredible rationalizations not to hire women.

Up until around 2 and 1/2 years ago, I was a consultant. I was hired in the telephone interview for the last 2 assignments I took before becoming full time permanent staff. While I was in these assignments (they were .NET contracts, not VFP), I was a rock star. So my experience has been a little different than yours. The only conference that I have been to since 2008 was SWFox last year and you are right about the conference attendance. Even at SWFox it was still predominantly male but I think that there were proportionately more women then there were at Devcon 1996...