It is impossible to argue with such generalization. Culture is sexist, ergo industry is sexist. I would only say that LA startup has very different culture from big corporation which still uses mainframes and Cobol.
This is what I always notice. I think it might just be that because there is such a low barrier to entry in IT and SE, that people notice more the sex bias. However, it happens in every industry - imagine trying to have a girl passionate for cars get into an auto mechanic shop gig. It would be constant harassment in 99% of places, regardless of their capabilities or skillset.
Likewise, stick a guy in a fashion designers shop, or as a nurse (rather than licensed doctor), or a secretary. You get the inverse sexual harassment for not filling your "role".
That is why I always see a lot of these attempts in the macro-IT space to try to correct sexism as doomed to fail, because they act like the rest of the world is fair but they are just being immature when the real problem is bigger than they are, it is just obscured by excuses like women are weaker so they shouldn't work in a mechanics shop, or men don't have the empathy to teach 2ed grade, when it is just an inherent long running cultural prejudice I think is evaporating from the collective psyche but it is taking centuries rather than decades.
Men in fashion design shops are far more tolerated than women in auto-mechanic shops. Same with male nurses.
20+ years ago, I started out as a secretary, mainly because I knew how to use MS Word and Excel and nobody else had computers on their desks. I didn't see much inverse sex harassment, mainly because everyone needed me to get their work out.
Meanwhile, my female co-workers were being chased around the desk.
> Likewise, stick a guy in a fashion designers shop, or as a nurse (rather than licensed doctor), or a secretary. You get the inverse sexual harassment for not filling your "role".
Men are not outsiders in the fashion industry at all, its quite the opposite. Moreover, men have get better latitude for moving into job roles where workers are traditionally or majority women (the history of computer workers is an example of this). Finally, there is no such thing as inverse sexual harassment, there is just sexual harassment and we know that men in general experience sexual harassment less in the workplace than women.
The issue in IT [1] is treating women as human beings rather than sexual objects. Too many women in technology have stories of men acting inappropriately, creepy, or occasionally intimidating. This can range from constantly commenting on their clothes or appearance, to making jokes or conversation about sex, to showing inappropriate images or video, to repeated asking out, to inappropriate touching (backrubs, butt pats, "accidentally" brushing up against them).
[1] IT is obviously not the only industry with this problem.
Women talk about sex in the workplace all the time. I've worked at a few all-women companies. If I used your list as examples of sexual harassment, they would have been sued out of existence years ago.
Harassment to me is singling someone out and making them feel uncomfortable. Talking privately with my co-workers about something sexual while may be inappropriate in the workplace, should not be considered "sexual harassment".
I also have to laugh because if you asked a woman out and they are attracted to you, it suddenly becomes a date rather than sexual harassment...which in my mind invalidates it entirely. If someone continues to ask a girl out and they are not interested, it's harassment. Not sexual harassment.
