Originally Posted by bluemagic
Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
Just as an aside, also, I personally have a problem with the fact that in some professional settings, at nearly 50 years of age, I'm still a "girl" to some of my physical-STEM 'peers.' I'm pretty sure that calling them "boys" wouldn't go over very well, so it's unclear why they think that calling me a "girl" is professionally appropriate.

Yes, really. smirk
Well.. in the tiny start-up company I worked as a programmer for 10 years I was refereed to as 'one of the boys'. The small group of us who programmed were younger (20's) than the 'administrators' (30's). We were top heavy with as many vice-presidents as programmers and the company president referred to the programmers as 'the boys' even after I joined the team. And yes the company eventually failed. At the time (in the 90's) I was flattered that they didn't see my sex only that I could do the job. But I see now how that could be seen as very offensive.
For some reason, a group of people of both sexes may be referred to as "guys" but never "girls". Regardless of the merits of this usage, it certainly is not specific to people working in STEM, so it cannot explain sex differences in STEM fields.