Women are treated different on hacker news in the same ways that women are treated differently in the world (US worldview) with some slight variance due to the makeup of HN posters. We have differences... while mostly physical there are differences in men and women's brains. Different is not bad. Many of us can relate in childhood saying one thing to a guy and that same thing to a woman and getting different responses. In addition, being "chivalrous" is still kept in high regard by most women and some men (though deteriorating rapidly). Chivalry amounts to treating women different from men in much the same way your hypothesis on your article espouses. Since the HN community is 1. Generally smarter than the overall populations and 2. Generally more introverted and thus has less female interaction they will tend to revert to social norms (chivalry) and from female interactions from childhood rather than adulthood.
