When an Australian biologist told me "foreigners are golden", she opened my eyes to something that would have taken me a long time to figure out on my own. She said that in America, in her professional life she was not only treated better than in Australia, but also better than her American female colleagues.
Her explanation was that men identify women from their own country with their sisters, wives, mothers, or daughters. But a foreign woman is exotic. Almost a different species. She's special.
I began to pay attention. I noticed that in Japan I was treated better than Japanese female mathematicians, in Germany I was treated better than German female mathematicians (though not as well as I was treated in the U.S.), etc. In other countries, I was golden. Not normal, not "one of us", but assigned a higher status than the local women.