How is excluding a dominate group beneficial? I find groups based on gender and race to be questionable. Leave the segregation in the 20th century. How are we to break stereotypes if people keep on grouping themselves into groups defined by what they claim to want to overcome? To me it seems ironic at least. Let's focus on the root issues and solve them organically.
The root issue is that women are being treated unfairly in a certain market. To alleviate this, some women have come together with ladies-specific events within this market. This way, women can progress while fighting against discrimination.
The main problem with the way you're thinking is you're ignoring the inequality and acting like a women-specific programming event is exactly the same as a men-specific event.
While I'd agree that the root cause is unfair treatment, "ladies-specific events" only server to further divide groups. I like the parent's use of "organic" - let's keep the doors open to everyone, and let the system reach equilibrium on its own.
Keep the doors open to everyone? Have you talked to actual women about their experiences in tech? I have for many years, and I tell you true: open doors are not what all of them are seeing.
I'd like to see your evidence that women-specific events only serve to further divide groups. The participants I've talked to see it as an opportunity to learn new skills in a safe environment. Skills that they then go out and apply at regular companies. It's not like they then go on to work at women-only companies and then found women-only startups themselves, after all.
My wording may have been off. By "keep open" I didn't mean to imply that all doors were open - just that we should make an active effort to prevent doors from closing.
And women-specific events reinforce a divided image by presenting the events as specific to a group. It highlights a division between groups, and not based on a functional difference relevant to the field. What's different from a women-specific coding meetup and a meetup open to all? I can see sexual harassment / feeling out of place as something that may happen. And that sucks. But retreating to exclusive events (in name and branding at least) is not the solution.
The difference is absolutely relevant to the field to the extent that men and women have different experiences in the field. E.g.: http://people.mills.edu/spertus/Gender/why.html Pretending otherwise won't get us anywhere.
You're certainly entitled to your opinion that somebody else's solution to a problem you don't have is wrong. But unless you're planning on doing something better, I'm not sure why you think your opinion is relevant. As with any open-source project, "patches welcome" is the order of the day.
I realize this is a bit pedantic, but the event is not exclusive, and it is open to all. They welcome men to the event as well, they just advertise it to encourage more women to come.
Ok, skipping issues of fairness for a moment because I think they are unhelpful because one cannot actually discuss them objectively.....
The argument for excluding a dominant group would be that people in a non-dominant group may have a different perspective that might otherwise be drowned out. Trying to ensure that one has a strong majority locally in an industry-wide minority can provide a space for a different kind of social interaction. Heck if other coding workshops occur without many (if any) women, then very often times you can get the guy-interactions going anyway.
I think the same does apply to ethnic groups. And it's not a matter of systematic exclusion so much as its an issue. The issue is social and cultural space.
Because it's dominating the given market. I don't see anything on their website specifically banning men, though. They probably just cater to women.