sexism in its most obvious form

Judge Guido Calabresi, former Yale Law School dean and [Sonia] Sotomayor's mentor, now says that when Sotomayor first joined the Court of Appeals, he began hearing rumors that she was overly aggressive, and he started keeping track, comparing the substance and tone of her questions with those of his male colleagues and his own questions.

"And I must say I found no difference at all. So I concluded that all that was going on was that there were some male lawyers who couldn't stand being questioned toughly by a woman," Calabresi says. "It was sexism in its most obvious form."

--from "Is Sonia Sotomayor Mean?" by Nina Totenberg

[HT Ann Friedman "Sotomayor is not meaner, just femaler"]