Proper contribution post.
Incorporating women in the workplace is not a difficult thing. This is what you do: treat her as a human being. There is usually no reason to treat your female colleagues any differently from your male colleagues, barring some very rare and special circumstances.
Most of the points in the original article should be no-brainers. Use her proper titles. Don't harp on her physical appearance. Include women in group discussions. Don't mansplain/assume she's an idiot. Don't ignore her accomplishments. Basically, don't be a douche.
The more controversial points:
Lifting Things
If your job regularly involves a ton of physical labor, then chances are smaller-framed men and women won't even be hired in the first place. Women have less physical strength on average, but most women are fully capable of standard physical labor. Taking 15 pounds up and down a ladder is not strenuous. I do it every day at work, and my boss, who is only 5'1" and doesn't look very strong, is insanely tough for her size. Women are usually tougher than most people -- of either gender -- assume.
Don't assume women are weak just because they're female. The key word in the article was insisting on helping, regardless of whether they actually need help or not. If they need help, offer to lend them a hand. You should also help any smaller-framed male who has trouble lifting something.
Talking Over People
The only one I might agree with arunma on.
As a general rule, you shouldn't be talking over anyone. Period. It's rude. Were you raised in a barn? But okay. There are some high-stress careers where yelling, snapping, and talking over people is pretty common. In these instances, it's okay -- and she shouldn't fuss about it. Because it's a part of a high-tension job. If you can't handle pressure, don't take that job.
My job can occasionally get like this, and we all sometimes get pissed off at each other, but it's par for the course. We get over it once the tense environment dissolves. And most people on my team are female, so we're obviously capable of not only enduring harsh conversation, but we're also capable of dishing it out. If a lady finds it acceptable to be yelled at by another woman, but freaks the hell out when a man does the exact same thing, then she's no longer in the realm of "equal treatment."
Maternity Leave
It boils down to two words: maternity leave. Women need at least a few weeks and often months away from work to bear and settle in with a child. Men almost never do this (although they often take leave to help.) This is an inherent expense of hiring a woman: any woman could opt to get pregnant at any time and she feels the effects directly. Men feel the effects indirectly or sympathetically.
You kind of undid your argument with "men often take leave to help." If men are taking time off, too, then it's not just the woman who is to blame. Some first-time moms have a tendency to stay home with their kids longer, chiefly because all first-time parents are hyper-paranoid about their new kids. Second or third-time mothers are back at work within a couple weeks, because by then, pfft, little shits can take care of themselves.
Most families, frankly, can't afford to have either parent take time off work. So mothers usually come back to work as soon as possible. Making maternity leave roughly on par with using up all your vacation days in one shot. Which may be inconvenient, but it's also not unjustified.
Also, women do not get pregnant in order to get out of work.
Also, this still doesn't justify paying women less for equal work. We are not conspiring to have babies.
Also, if your culture considers it a massive burden for a woman to take a month off to raise more humans, your civilization probably doesn't have its priorities straight.
Home Life
I read this as applying to working-women. And it's true. Even if both spouses are working, the woman is often expected to do more at home anyway. This happened with my family. My stepfather and mother both work (she actually works later in the evening than he does), and he always got on her case for "not doing housework." As he sat on his computer staring at the internet for three hours before she even set foot in the house. He might mow the lawn and do random other "manly" household things, but, on average, the "womanly" work -- like dishes and laundry -- is more regular and plentiful than lawncare or household repairs. Thus requiring more time. Thus why women may be unfairly burdened at home.
If your woman is a housewife, then this argument is irrelevant. In that case, household work is effectively her "job." Same for any men who stay home full-time while their wife works.
Your motivation for treating women chivalrously:
As my housemate was leaving this morning, I picked up the big box she was taking and put it in her car for her. Sexist or just a cool guy?
See, I did it because she put it down and had looked awkward as fuck carrying that plus the two bags dangled on her arm. She didnt expect it, told me she was fine but thanked me and was all cool with it.
Using this as an example, because it's a good lead-in. These kind of things can be put through a quick test.
1) If you would still go out of your way to do this for a dude who was obviously struggling with something, then chances are that you're a cool guy! Woo! Cool guys are awesome!
2) If you would ignore the guy who was obviously struggling with something, then there's a higher likelihood that you were only helping the girl 'cause you were trying to look good in front of the ladies. Which means you had ulterior motives, even if they were subconscious.
See, most guys are conditioned to do the chivalrous open-doors-for-women type things. Lift heavy things. Go out of your way to help them. Coats over mud puddles. All that stuff. But when you strip away all the superficial layers of these practices, you're left with the most basic of motivations -- you're helping chicks because you want to bang them. Which means you're subconsciously thinking of women as sex toys. But you don't know the sex toy's "power up" code, so doing all this "nice" stuff is the equivalent of codebreaking. If you do stuff to win her favor, she may start to like you, and then she may start to like-like you, and then she might put out. A lot of this "nice" stuff stops happening once guys get what they want, which is why girls are increasingly wary about it.
If you're really doing it to be nice, then nice isn't something that's limited to gender. You'd hold doors open for anyone. You'd help anyone out. You'd do it without expecting to get anything (apart from maybe a "thank you" and some respect) in return.
I'm from what's considered to be a really polite region, so guys hold doors open for anyone behind them. Young girls open doors for old men. It's just what you do. 'Cause it's nice. Nice isn't an age or gender or race or religion.
"This is what I was taught to do," is the usual answer for why guys do the chivalrous things. But that's the surface answer. Why did those practices come into existence in the first place?
For the booty, my friend. For the booty.
So, no, it's not inherently sexist. But sometimes guys do this stuff with questionable motivations.
Now, this all applies to professional and/or cordial settings. Romantic relationships have different rules -- which vary from couple to couple, because everyone's different.
edit: Also, sexism is pervasive within our culture. If you don't realize this, then consider yourself extremely fortunate that you don't have to bear the brunt of it. Individual sexist acts are learned, and that is derived from the culture in question.
