"One of the challenges for me while I was at Google was to speak up when I didn't understand something, as I often assumed it was common technical knowledge and that people would pass judgment."

Of course, it is generally good advice in most workplaces to speak up and ask questions to be sure what the colleagues are talking about. But, yes, male or female, many new employees lose out on learning opportunities by not asking questions when they know they don't understand, and perhaps even more from not asking questions when they suppose they do understand. What I've learned by becoming a lot older than the author of the interesting submitted blog post is that I still have plenty to learn, and sometimes I can make a good impression by being willing to ask a possibly dumb question[1] to be sure I know what my colleagues have in mind.

[1] The best teacher I ever had was a teacher who said, of course, "The only dumb question is the question you don't ask," and he really meant it. He tried his utmost to make sure any student who asked him a question got a thoughtful response that implicitly acknowledged that it's important for learners to check and recheck their understanding.