Start with a young woman who's already formed her identity.
Dump her in a situation that operates on different social
scripts than she's accustomed to, full of people talking
about a subject she doesn't yet understand. Then tell her
the community is hostile toward women and therefore doesn't
have enough of them, all while showing her off like a prize
poodle so you can feel good about recruiting a female.
This is a recipe for failure.
Brilliant writing. I for one am loving it. The article does have me somewhat torn though.On the one hand the stream-of-consciousness rantyness so accurately describes what's actually going on and it's beautiful to see it written down so poignantly.
On the other hand it has a pretty strong "I got mine" component to it, where she laments the negative effects these changes have had on her personally but doesn't acknowledge that while she's in a position she likes that doesn't at all mean it is, or would be, like that for many others.
The risk here is that sexism often manifests itself as 'all good until it's not,' in that the small things are always easily brushed off and if you're lucky to run in circles where you don't experience the bad stuff you tend to think it's all way overblown... until you get to a point where something happens that can't be brushed off and you realize you aren't actually as supported as you thought you were, at which point all minor transgressions are no longer just brushed off but are rather interpreted as 'still a transgression, even if only minor.'