It was posted at least 4 times in a 24-hour period; perhaps the latter postings were flagged purely for spam/dupe reasons. Flags aren't delimited by reason.

The original survives:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10887846

These dupes still survive (as of 0200 GMT):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10887846

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10895364

Plus the introductory article on Techcrunch:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10884242

I posted the article. I may be misinformed to what 'flagged' means, but I see no reports or 'flags' on my screens and whatnots. I am not a power user in any sense. As of writing, I see no downvotes, just an upvote total of 35. What does being flagged mean here so that I may avoid it or recognize it in the future?

Yours is the survivor that gained traction. There were earlier (and perhaps later) postings that were flagged (I'm guessing because of duplication rather than nefarious intent.)

Thanks for the clarification.

Every user who has been around for a while has a "flag" option for every story, to be used for stories which should not be on HN, such as spam. Your posting briefly made the front page, then was flagged off of HN by people clicking that link.

There's nothing you can do to avoid it except avoid posting stories which imply Silicon Valley has any sort of sexism problem.