In the summer of 2017, a long screed written by a twenty-something Google employee was getting much more press coverage than it deserved. It seemed to me that the writer hadn't studied or understood the issue of why there aren't many women in tech in sufficient depth to warrant such massive media attention.
Over the years, books and articles by scholars who thought deeply about the subject were not getting the media attention they deserved. It looked to me as if the media tended to ignore the voices of women who knew more, in favor of rehashing provocative claims, stereotypes, and musings of random people. It fed a harmful "outrage culture."
Each time the media promoted a dubious claim about the superiority of men, women in STEM scrambled to rebut it.
Repeatedly debunking discredited theories feels like whack-a-mole. We have better things to do with our time.
Why do I post my stories? For many years I've documented some of the interesting things I've observed, and told them to friends and colleagues. Some of the information could be helpful in understanding a piece of the history of places such as Harvard, Princeton, Ohio State University, the University of Cambridge, and the University of California, and perhaps academia in general (or at least math departments). I don't want my stories to be forgotten when I die.
Writing about and posting some of what I've learned and seen seems more useful than fuming about misplaced priorities of the media.
People can choose what to read. I hope that people will read my stories and essays and, rather than feeling outrage, ask "What can I learn from this? How can I use it to make things better?"