I've been in some interesting situations as a female in a male dominated field (former maintenance electrician, including anything from programming to high voltage work), and in my current different, but related job.
I was top of my class in school (a two-year associates, as part of a work requirement). I was more mechanically inclined than at least 90% of the other people. Most my class/work mates did not appreciate that. It was ok that another guy was better than them, but hugely insulting that "a girl" could do it better.
When someone saw me as "a threat", they would try to undermine me, spread rumors about me, try to claim I couldn't do a job as well, etc. For the most part, I was able to let my work, and work ethics, speak for itself. When they couldn't find something to complain about (because I was damn good at my job), they would complain about me doing the job the right way! Really, if I was seen as "a threat", I could do no right.
I had a boss who was scared I was smarter than him (it was explained to me by another supervisor later). So, he tried to claim I was unreliable, or didn't communicate well, or... But, guess who was the first one to be called when shit hit the fan, because I was the only one who could troubleshoot and fix things? Or, when pride dictated they have someone else work on it first, I was brought in to clean up the original mess, plus the new mess created by incapable coworker.
New people were definitely of the mind that I was incapable because I was female. Most did not take long to change their minds.
However, the other crews? When they needed an electrician, they would ask for me. If they had questions, they would come to me. If they needed something "fixed yesterday", they would ask for me. They weren't in competition with me, so they really just wanted the person who could get shit done, and done right. And that was me, the female. They weren't worried I would show them up, they just wanted someone easy to work with and good at fixing things.
Within months at my new location, I had mechanics asking me for help with some things (because they were trying to figure out if the problem was mechanical, or electrical, and the electricians are "too good" to come help). On the flipside, I still have some question everything I do, every issue I report, etc, so I have got in the habit of taking photos of everything. I can write up a trouble report about a broken grease line, specify exactly where it is located when there are 20 different places it could be on one piece of equipment ("arm #12", directly below x pump control box") and they still come and say I must be seeing things, because they went down and didn't find anything. So, I pull out the camera and show the photo of the big pile of grease under the broken line (seriously, like the size of a 2 lb block of cheese!)
Anyway, there are people who will judge you by your sex. There are people who are threatened by others who are better at something than they are (but especially if that person is of the sex that isn't supposed to be good at that kind of thing). It sucks. I took a paycut to escape the hell of my old shop and am so much happier now. And the guys on my current crew know I'm not in competition with them (I have no desire for the next level position, at all!), so I'm pretty safe from most of the bs. But it took a long time to get here.
As for "feminine" communication and "masculine" communication? I can tell someone to f*ck off just as well as any man. And I have. Sometimes it's pretty nice to be blue collar.
Another funny thing... The more "chauvinist", "women belong at home, not working" type the guy was, the more he was likely to really like me and my work. Those who openly tried to say stuff like "women are just as capable", or "we need to not discriminate" were usually the worst about treating me like I was lesser, because I didn't have a penis.