Having created over a hundred bits of prefab dialogue for Left4Dead2, I've been mistaken as a bot often enough. I've been considering if I could pass as a girl, though I'd not claim to be so much as give implicative hints. The tricky part is that women are not literarily different than men, especially when communicating in short missives via chat.
I also hand out gear that I'm not immediately using like it was Christmas.[footnote]That's regardless of gender of the recipient. I tend to assume everyone playing is male (most are) and use pronouns in accordance to one's avatar / character / whatever. I've never had an online gaming relationship that has become one IRL, but I have a few standing hospitality invites in New Zealand. Go figure.[/footnote] That's because it is way too easy to hoard tons of crap which isn't worth the space unless you want a legacy weapon for your next character. Even then, I'd rather stuff be used now than later.
Korolev said:
...you'd be amazed how many female writers had to pretend they were male in order to get their works published...
I've heard of cases in which female mathematicians had to submit papers under a male name in order just for them to be looked at....
...I've heard of women writing under male pen-names just so that the publisher would give them a chance...
My flatmate when she was training to be an illustrator (and later, a painter) was advised in college to sign her art with a first initial or under a male or ambiguous pseudonym because even today there this some of this.
It breaks my heart, still, to read the reviews of Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus from when she released the second edition (the first edition, she had published anonymously in a limited run), most of which are scathing criticism of her sex, not even addressing the story. And we're talking the beginnings of science fiction, here.
And yes, most female scientists got barely a notice for their work [http://xkcd.com/896/]. That is still in the process of changing.
238U.