CM,
It may have been difficult (I wasn't here when you started). But I would gather from my short time here and reading your posts that it became easier for you because YOU LISTENED and DISCUSSED. You more than likely didn't come here with a chip on your sholder expecting to tell these people that they were wrong and try to 'educate' them.
If I were to have come here and began spouting the typical rhetoric, I am sure that I (even being male) would have been shut down tout sweet! You cannot expect to 'win an argument'** with bogus stats and lopsided opinions based on little or no fact. It just doesn't work that way.
This, of course, is based upon my limited amount of time that I have been here.
** Because most if not all come here to argue their points, not discuss IMO.
Al