> have quite literally heard people talking about these things as "the way we'll close the gender participation gap", as in, they'll burn men's careers until t

> have quite literally heard people talking about these things as "the way we'll close the gender participation gap", as in, they'll burn men's careers until things equal out. How does your quote imply your interpretation of malicious intent at all? If someone believes (rightly or wrongly) that the gap in participation in certain industries is because women feel unsafe participating in those industries from harassment etc, reducing harassment and providing avenues for those women to address that problem would naturally act to "close the gender participation gap". I wouldn't care to speculate what proportion of the gender participation gap is in fact due to women's experiences of harassment and/or anxieties about such -as I simply don't know, and would prefer to defer to women and the people who research these things-, but there is a pretty obvious and quite benign interpretation to your quote that you are choosing to ignore.