Wow, that really sucks that your girlfriend's experience has been so negative. :( Documentation is a particular sore point, because when women are good at it, it's easy for other people to sort of continually stick them there. And it's even worse when documentation is viewed as an after-thought kind of task that "any monkey can do," which is a culture I've seen on a few projects. I hope that she can find some decent clients who appreciate her broader skills, and/or get involved with an open source project that will encourage her to dig in and flex her coder muscles for a change. :)

That's great to hear that you'll be one of the folks on the look-out for crap like this and that you aim to speak up about it. It *really* does help, because a lot of these types of guys will completely blow it off when a girl speaks up about it, but will pay a lot more attention if a fellow guy says something, particularly if it's from someone they respect.