Oh man, down-voted for that!? I wonder what makes you put a negative twist to my congrats. You should check the demographics of genders with such stories.
It's like saying "congratulations on your promotion to CEO, Fred, and even more so because you're black. Cool that we've started to move on from the whole racism thing in America, huh?"
Regardless of what you meant, you're pointing out the difference rather than just treating everyone equally. Just congratulate the OP on teaching herself Django and developing an app within weeks, not because she isn't your gender.
Nope. I'm not changing that. This job is so dominated by guys, it's getting boring sometimes. Diversity gets an upvote from me, even if it's followed by downvotes from futile justice.
You do realize that by demonstrating surprise to the OP that she is a woman, you're directly reinforcing the same gender bias that you hate in our industry?
First of all, I don't have the requisite karma to down vote you. Try not to take it personally.
Second, have you considered the demographics are affected by pervasive sexism in several world cultures? Not to go on a tirade, but walk through a toy store some time and tell me why you think there aren't more female programmers and scientists. The point is, culture- NOT gender, is to account for the disparity between men and women in the field. While numbers may be numbers, its still a backhanded compliment.
Like I stated in my above comment, I realize it may not be the intent of your statement, I am just sharing with you how it may be construed amongst the fairer sex when we "dare" to cross these imaginary gender lines drawn in the sand.
