If you are in your mid-40’s, you were born in 1970 or before and it’s likely you spent your formative years steeped in tradition. People interviewing in the NE could have come from anywhere there were pockets of resistance even after that.
As someone who has watched this since 1980, I can tell you that it has gotten much, much better. Back then, some residency programs were just beginning to get exposed. They had decades of success with only men in the program and they didn’t want to change, but they knew they had to interview women and the results were sometimes amusing. Obnoxious but amusing.
Sometimes the problem is just about how old/young newly minted docs appear, regardless of gender. Everyone can fall prey to that, especially oldsters who think you look like their grandson/daughter.