[alxjrvs]

I am reasonably convinced that even those trying to be nice or funny can be sexist, and in fact, can be sexist while trying to be nice or funny.

I am also convinced that sexism is a societal problem, and not the hand-wringing of a few key dudes.

There are plenty of things in Computer Science / engineering / etc that are trying to be nice/funny, but contribute to a strong culture of sexism.

[theVirginian]

Possibly. As an outsider to the industry it is hard for me to understand exactly what people mean by sexism in the STEM fields. There is no cut and dry "Women cannot apply to this position." Instead it seems to be things like comments about the dress being fun which to me seem rather ambiguous about their intentions. I wouldn't consider that to be sexist, if I said that I would intend it as a compliment but I see stuff all the time about how seemingly innocent things like that are apparently sexist. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Even the recounting of guy talking about the Facebook internship seemed to me as if the guy was trying to joke about how she must be smart, so he should apply; as if he was trying to imply that it would have been a good idea/opportunity. I didn't interpret that incident as meaning that the guy thought he should get the internship over the girl, since she most certainly wasn't the only intern at Facebook over the summer.

[lotso]

A good starting place is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat