In the mid-eighties I was a process engineer for a printed-circuit-board company whose production staff was predominantly female and with an education level of 10th to 12th grade. I decided I'd be part of the company if I ate my lunch with the rest of the crew, and on the second or third day, one of the "ladies" asked if I was going to eat my banana.

When I responded with "I don't have a banana", she said that sounded like a personal problem and I was asked if I had one every day for months. What I can tell you from that experience is that women can be far raunchier than men - and in this case, I think they had a contest running to see who could make me blush or fluster me the most.

I've been part of the minority in other cases (race, country of origin, gender) and I think that much of this behavior is really related to crowd dynamics. Would the men described in the article behave that way if their SO was present? In any case, this female engineer shouldn't be hazed in this way and while it probably doesn't count for much, I'll still say "I'm sorry" for the behavior of my fellow men.

Let's all try to be a bit more civilized ... and especially here on the Internet!