I'm going to preface this with a few comments. First, I'm a male and I don't work in the computing field but I do work in a similar engineering field where 80+% of my coworkers are male and I assume the culture isn't that different. Additionally, I am speaking in general hypotheticals and from my own experiences and I am explicitly not stating the Microsoft complaints should have been ignored without further investigation from HR and/or management. Finally, I absolutely believe there is still blatant and purposeful sexism in the workforce and anyone who is engaged in it should be dealt with in whatever manner is appropriate (HR, civil lawsuits, etc.).
Having said that, I think the bigger problem, that leads to an uncomfortable work environment for women, is one of the default "male culture" and not a result of intentional sexism. Simply put I think a lot of men are just as big of $#@holes to each other as they are to women. The two examples in the Ars article I could very easily see happening in my work place to a receiver of either gender. Specifically from the following excerpt, "such as one woman being told to sit on another coworker's lap or a woman in a technical role having her contribution to a project restricted to booking meeting rooms, making dinner reservations, and taking minutes." The first is something I actually have heard when someone walked into a meeting after the room was full past the point of standing room only. It wasn't a woman who received the comment either. It was a joke about how full/undersized the room was for the meeting. The second example just seems like typical work group clique crap that I and others I know have put up with in various positions. If you're not in some clique you get the crap assignments. Another example I've seen raised in other forums is women being talked over instead of being allowed to provide their input. That happens all the time and just about everyone has experienced it. Let me reiterate I am not stating the issues raised at Microsoft aren't completely and specifically about sexism, nor am I saying HR/management was right to dismiss them without a complete investigation of the complaint. I'm saying some of the defensiveness in these type of discussions I believe stem from similar experiences to my own that drive people to dismiss these complaints out of hand as just the normal office culture.
So, this brings me to the question of how do we address it if it isn't just about sexism? We address it by improving the culture in general. One way to improve the culture is to bring more women into the engineering and technical work force. I think if we had the 50/50 mix the culture would improve just through breaking the critical mass that allows the current culture to remain. The only problem there is we need to feed the pipeline so to speak. We can't get to a 50/50 ratio of engineers in business if universities are still graduating a 90/10 or even 75/25 mix of STEM degrees and we can't graduate a 50/50 mix if the applications to the department or program is a 95/5 mix. (Note, I realize this could be seen as asking women to fix a bad culture that men have caused, but I intend it more as an observation of a fact than a request for help.)
The other way to fix the culture is by actively and deliberately being more respectful of each other. I know I've tried to change the culture around me by calling people out for some less than appropriate comments, by actively spreading work around more evenly and encouraging my co-workers, leads, managers, etc. to do the same, and by not talking over others and trying to not allow others to either (or explicitly going back to the person who was interrupted and asking them to continue). But, I know I'm not perfect. I've cut off or talked over more than one person. Especially when I feel they are missing the point or dragging the conversation off on a tangent (although I try to catch myself). I've also made the occasional comment or joke that wasn't appropriate (and apologized immediately when I realize how wrong I was or when someone called me out on it). It's something I actively work on every day and try to think about in every interaction I have regardless of the other party's sex.
Anyways that's my 1/2 cent.
