Code, conflict, and conduct

People from minority groups and from oppressed groups (and/or whatever intersectional combination you might come across) are generally dealing with additional challenges in their lives on top of what members of the dominant group are, and that means they have fewer resources left over to deal with the crap being hurled at them in the course of trying to contribute to the kernel. It's not gender that makes the difference, it's the position of relative power that men are typically in, particularly in the software industry,that insulates us from a lot of the negative effects of abusive behaviour. Not all of them, of course - everyone can suffer harm from abusive behaviour directed towards them, but if you're starting a lap behind already then you're a lot more vulnerable.

The same is true for people from less common cultural backgrounds (in comparison to the existing community) - working in a second language, dealing with cross cultural communication issues, even things like the kind of humour that's considered acceptable in different cultures, all add to the background burden on people who are just trying to contribute.

This is already well studied and understood, it's just not well accepted outside parts of academia, or what might be loosely termed the "social justice" movement. Lots of people don't seem to want to accept it - the push back that's going on now in this community is a perfect example. But it's either ignorant or disingenuous to claim that there's no explanation better than "it just is..."