One of the interesting things to notice is the title. HN usually has a fairly strict policy: the title of the link is what it is from the original post, without much modification (unless needed to make it clear). A post should stand on its own, without the author's name, ideally...

My initial reaction, I confess, was feeling that the submitter was attempting to discredit the author -- or otherwise, to separate the world of UX research -- by calling attention to her identity as a woman.

I still am not sure I believe that Kathy's name should be present -- I think it has the potential to do more harm than it is of use to readers -- but I now understand why it's there. Thanks for posting this explanation.