[thehardsphere]

I'm not so sure. The problem when the only "wall between genders" that's "erected" is consent, you often find out too late that it's not strong enough of a wall. It seems like at Atari in the 1970's it was fine, but there are easily identifiable places it was not, like most of Hollywood in the current decade.

I'm guessing something else about Atari's culture prevented the kind of problems that can crop up when you have a relaxed sexual attitude, but it isn't as easy to identify.

[m_mueller]

Here's my take on it: From the way it is described, 70s Atari allowed both men and women to make passes at each other. For some reason it seems to have mostly worked in that people respected a simple 'no' - there were enough ways out for everyone to keep face. Meanwhile today it appears to me that this courtesy is only allowed one-way today (i.e. for men it's generally verboten outside the accepted dating arena). The egregious offenders like Weinstein are still out there and they seem to find ways to get around these issues, but for everyone who isn't in a completely lob-sided power relationship or who has normal levels of decency this is out of the question. My point is: By not allowing it even in a respectful way, men get fearful of women in the workplace and would often rather just surround themselves with other men in order to not be exposed to any risks of being accused. Since men still hold most power positions this could have a chilling effect on women moving up. My hypothesis (and I do acknowledge here that it's only a hypothesis, but I would love to get some evidence either way) is that the two issues are related: Free love coupled with respect could be a strong enhancer of mobility in hierarchies, both for women in male dominated and men in female dominated fields.