This was a good article about the stresses of entering a programming career.
The strained sexism tie-ins were unnecessary because most of the challenges she faced are universal, I remember hearing the same gloating conversations and feeling the same way when I was young.
As for the back massages and tshirts with men's names on them, that is a bit weird and should probably be taken up with their supervisor if it continues. It's most likely to be caused by poorly calibrated social cues than straight up sexism. There's nothing sexist about awkwardly showing interest in someone, it's only a problem if they don't take no for an answer.
Except that men disproportionately "awkwardly show interest" in random colleagues, strangers, passer-by.
All the women you know have experienced it, several times. Most of the men you know never experienced it.
So there is something sexist here, because women experience a flow of continual "akward interests" from random men that they have to manage. It's all on the women to manage men's akward interests, and from what my female friends tell me it is really stressing and wearing them down.
(I did an art-documentarish piece a few years ago, going and interviewing my friends about public space harassment and how they built techniques to manage mens. There's an excerpt in french there: https://www.facebook.com/Le-sac-%C3%A0-main-269196498659/ )
The strained sexism tie-ins were unnecessary because most of the challenges she faced are universal, I remember hearing the same gloating conversations and feeling the same way when I was young.
As for the back massages and tshirts with men's names on them, that is a bit weird and should probably be taken up with their supervisor if it continues. It's most likely to be caused by poorly calibrated social cues than straight up sexism. There's nothing sexist about awkwardly showing interest in someone, it's only a problem if they don't take no for an answer.