I think she means it in a day-to-day sense. People will make comment and put forth actions that could come off as rude or malicious, but it's more likely they don't understand where you're coming from (a culture clash which could lead to discussion, or to fights, depending)
Yeah, or just completely oblivious. Most of the technical "advice" they insisted on giving us was just completely wrong.
Also, gotta say, I was never as self-conscious about being a woman in tech until we got acquired by Facebook. I've never had so many experiences of walking in to a room (as a tech lead) and having a dude look me up and down and say, "ummm, how technical are you?"
Like, literally? I could see a question like that being asked, but I have no idea what a possible answer would be for anyone. Perhaps "7.2" might be pretty ok, but otherwise I can't fathom a single answer that isn't sarcastic, snarking, or arrogant.
I'm plonking that alongside "when did you stop beating your wife"-style trap questions.
"I'm the tech lead", "I was a developer for X years before moving into management", "Fully technical - I wrote/designed this blah", "I have a degree in X", etc.
I ask people how technical they are all the time - recruiters, project managers, designers, marketing people, product managers. It helps me communicate effectively. I won't describe a problem in the same way to a senior engineer as I would to a non-technical marketing person.
Depending on the parent commenter's job title, people may not have known whether she was a technical leader or a people manager upon first meeting, and asked the question without ever even giving a thought to gender.
