I certainly would not advocate using 'him' for failure and 'her' for success.
I definitely would prefer to see neutral descriptors used in articles like these (as I implied downthread); when I wrote "using language to erode stereotypes" I intended it to be taken as an author alternating between pronouns in a single work.
Why not simply use a neutral descriptor instead of a gendered one? If it is true that the author is as committed to the female pronoun as you suggest he is, isn't it therefore implied that he would only encourage such thoughtfulness at the intersection of language, gender, perception, failure, objectification and technology?
One woman to another, might I remind you of the ill effects of arbitrarily mandating what is and is not healthy for all ladies! Your concern is noted but thankfully my constitution is such that I can certainly participate in a dialogue about the use of the female pronoun in this particular article and the tacit conclusions a casual reader might draw from it.
Does anyone else find the author's stylistic choice of the generic 'her' throughout this article a little weird? I'm all for using language to erode stereotypes about the types of people involved in tech enterprise, so in theory I should applaud TechCrunch here, but I feel like the use of the female pronoun in an article describing a hypothetical CEO as a failed product is perhaps a step in the wrong direction.
I must assume you are referring to the bibliography of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, although perhaps not, as the publishing dates of sources likely relevant to your query go back to at least the 1920s -- ex. Bogardus (1928, 1925). If you haven't accessed this bibliography I heartily recommend that you do, as cursory examination of the sources included therein reveals a multitude that would likely address both your first and second challenges.
"[Company] is looking to grow our team with energetic software engineers ready to take on the hardest challenges of their career. Day-to-day responsibilities include challenging and interesting work on algorithms, databases, web technologies, human-computer interaction, scalability and systems architecture."
This position sounds stimulating. Perhaps some ladies are also motivated to pursue careers more for passion than profit?
An established area of research -- ethnology, and related fields like ethnomathematics and ethnography -- exists in social science disciplines to generate qualitative data in response to exactly these kinds of questions.
I definitely would prefer to see neutral descriptors used in articles like these (as I implied downthread); when I wrote "using language to erode stereotypes" I intended it to be taken as an author alternating between pronouns in a single work.