Haleivi, I don’t turn anything into personal glimpses. My personal glimpses color my opinions of how different rabbonim do not seem to be able to reach a consensus at times, solely based on their PERSONAL opinions about an issue, and NOT at all based in the actual halacha. If you don’t like my expressing my opinion, so be it. But please do not mistake my opinion on someone else’s opinion (and not actual Jewish law), to be that I do not like a Mishna. This has nothing to do with my like or dislike, but everything to do with the interpretation of something in the context of what it meant at the time when it was said.
And men and women apparently had VERY little to do with each other (especially if they followed that mishna strictly), because men were either working or learning all day or some mix therof. Their interactions in the Gemarah might be typical; I am not sure I would use the word “normal,” in the specific sense that we use that word today. What was normal then, is not necessarily considered normal by present day standards in the modern machmir world. And conversely, what the chareidi world considers normal today was possibly not even DONE in yesteryears.
BTW I will state FTR, I am not a feminist. I do not feel that the Torah has something against women. I do think that some men do, however, in the rabbinic sphere, and if you do not believe that to be true, then you are a tad naive. My example with the nail polish, was just one of many, and it was just a naarishkeit. When one asks for a specific p’sak and the response is why does she need to wear it in the first place, that is not being a responsible rov.