We're both academics. I publish papers and do good science, this woman had checked out though and has since left the field. Science/astronomy is creative work, on some level it's easy if you're interested in it and if you're motivated, like writing a novel. If you're not motivated, it's the hardest thing in the world.
I'm not sure why this woman was against me. My speculation is that she was insecure due to her own failure. She was totally checked out and never contributing, she wrote one paper in four years which is absolutely awful. She was surrounded by people doing better than her.
She was going to lash out at someone as she had a lot of frustration she built up. Why she lashed out at me, I'm not sure. It may be that my excessively visible exuberance was disconcerting to her, as she was not being intellectual about things at all. She may have also hated the fact that I of all people was doing better than she was, as I'm someone who should be at the bottom of the totem pole: poor, ugly, middle eastern, etc. She was from a white, upper-middle class background. Her parents were extremely rich. Doing better than me in life is her birthright. The fact that I'm supposed to be her servant, but I was among the better people there, and she was the worst, probably bothered her. She may not have been aware of it at all.