A good theory, but it doesn't quite explain my observation. What I described is a phenomenom that includes all students regardless of gender. If it was as you s

A good theory, but it doesn't quite explain my observation. What I described is a phenomenom that includes all students regardless of gender. If it was as you said I'd expect noticeble differences between the behavior of male and female students. As someone who teaches at university I definitly get to interact with young women often and I have never once felt the sensitivity you described either towards myself (male) or towards any other young male student. I have seen it towards single older members of the staff who thought telling some joke about women and technology in front of a female student who was a professional carpenter before was a fun idea. Let me assure you that they got the receipt for that directly and in a way they probably will not forget quickly. So no, this is not the explaination, at least not by my observation.