Anghraine

I did read about that (well after this conversation, I think), and yeah, nothing about the episode as written led me to think Janice was just making it up or confused or something, though I can see why that would be a more comfortable retcon. But especially given that, when she insists the Starfleet glass ceiling isn't fair, Kirk actually agrees with her: "No, it isn't."

I'm actually more bothered by the earlier episode where they drag in LaSalle, I think, to take temporary command because Kirk, Spock, and Scotty are all unavailable—it was going to be Uhura, but Roddenberry threw a vicious temper tantrum about women ever being in command in any circumstances. But misogyny and heteronormativity are so blatantly interwoven throughout the narratives and world building of TOS, regardless—despite the show trying to envision a world that's better about it than the writers' own IRL—that the idea that Starfleet might still have institutional gender baggage they haven't wholly moved past doesn't bother me all that much. The existence of institutionalized sexism that the male hero agrees is fucked up is the least of Roddenberry's gender-related offenses IMO.

I suppose it might be issueficcy, but personally (as someone whose ST fannishness is overwhelmingly concentrated on TOS), I find more to chew on in imagining how Starfleet and the Federation move past recognizable cultural baggage than in denying it was ever there. I know for other people, the quasi-utopianism makes it a lot more objectionable, though.