In light of the research on homosocial aggression (for a 2009 survey, see Phyllis Chesler's Woman's Inhumanity to Woman), this finding is worth highlighting. Why are people harder on people of the same gender and easier on members of the opposite gender? Is this consistent across, say, sexual orientation? There are interesting follow-up questions here, and it shouldn't be buried.

I agree it's interesting, but we didn't bury it.

In the part of the paper we cut, we performed four related investigations. One was looking at bias associated with women being hard on other women. The other three types were not in a shape that we thought were ready for release. I judged that we couldn't ethically include just the one part (however interesting the results), so we're not releasing that officially until all four investigations are complete.

That seems like a pretty crucial detail to cut. The popular media has already seized on this article with the opposite assumption.

Interesting! Can you estimate how much of the difference is caused by this intragender effect? Surely it are not just women rejecting women's pull requests?

Felienne -- that's a good suggestion!