VP of sales and marketing of a 54B valuation company tends to have a bit more scrutiny so this doesn't really seem apples to apples. That aside, perhaps they didn't like her and it had nothing to do with gender?
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29120696.
The golden rule is: unless you have evidence to the contrary at least give her the benefit of the doubt, the vast majority of these cases are bad enough without people trying to muddy the waters with a 'both sides' approach. No executive in their right mind commits career suicide by relating such an account if it isn't true, and someone who managed to climb to the top of an automaker can be assumed to be in their right mind.
she said that