I like this thread.
I've had an interesting work history with women. My first job was in the oil field, and almost immediately after finishing the 6-month training period, I was given a brand-new female engineer to train. She was a tough girl and wanted to show everyone how tough she was. There were very, very few women in the oil field at that time (1991 - and probably hasn't changed). We got along very well and remained friends outside work as well, and she even dated one of my roommates for a while. (I lost track of her though and have no idea how she turned out). As far as the way she fit in to the work environment, she was one of those who seemed to want to try very hard to show the men that she could do anything they could, but the problem was that us men engineers didn't have to do all the things the regular crew did, and she ended up kind of insulting the crew by taking away some of their work, and then also occasionally messing up the engineer's job by spending too much time on the stuff the crew could have been doing, and neglecting the stuff the engineer needed to be doing. So, IMO, she ended up hurting herself by trying too hard.
She eventually burned out and quit, like 99% of the engineers there, but she just burned out a little faster. To us men, there was never any doubt she was a hard worker and could do the job. So she kind of messed up by over-compensating. And, I have to say, the vast majority of men we worked with treated her exactly the same as the male engineers. The only bad treatment she would get was from the rig hands, but they didn't work for the company, and it was somewhat expected, and it never got out of hand because her crew was always there.
After that, I worked at an A&E firm out here and got to see another situation - our architect was a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. Drop-dead gorgeous. I think the A&E office is a far worse place than the oil field when it comes to the treatment of women - it seemed like half the guys in that office were always over "chatting" at her cubicle. But she handled it well - that didn't last very long after she made it clear that she had no interest in anyone and needed to work. She ultimately married one of the younger engineers in the office, but you would have never know they had anything going on between each other. It was very covert. But once it was out in the open, her troubles at the office were over.
On the other hand, I worked in a field office for that firm, and had a local secretary who was one of the most fun women I ever worked with. She didn't work very much, but she was hilarious and knew how to "command" if you know what I mean. The other engiener I worked with on the project would always tease her about stuff, and sometimes she would get genuinely mad and then throw stuff at him. Beaned him in the head with a stapler once. But it was a very family-like atmosphere in that office, and we are all still friends today.
Working in the environmental field has been totally different. It seems like there are a lot more female professionals in the environmental world than any other technical profession I am familiar with. I rarely see any discrepancies in the way women are treated (beyond the local islander culture that is, which is very chauvinistic). And because of that, all the female professionals I work with seem to be very much at ease, and I don't sense any "gender issues" at all, except for the occasional young, freshly-graduated environmental professional. I've run into a few of them that seem like they're tryingt o hard to impress, but that goes for both genders, to be honest.
Me, I am a perfectly modern male and have never offended any woman I have ever worked with.
:BS:
But I do try. (and I married a co-worker - so my workplace flirting succeeded at least once)