I was watching pro golf coverage on the news and it seems so odd that men and women compete separately - same goes with pro bowling. Just seems weird to me that a game of skill is gendered when you can’t even raise an argument that someone might have an advantage because of what’s between their legs.
If it were possible to turn off the patriarchy and all its sequela, I’d say everything.
However, in a world with ubiquitous oppression of women, it is essential for non-men to have exclusive places of refuge.
It’s kind of a catch-22 though because gender segregation helps keep the notion of meaningful gender difference alive.
Recently in my city’s university there was a computer seminar for free, only for women. No men allowed. So a friend of mine who is cyberdumb couldn’t attend.
So not so ubiquitous.
And don’t tell me that was fine, discrimination is wrong whoever does and receive it.
Having lived as a young woman, I don’t find it at all unreasonable to organize a class where women don’t have to worry about unsolicited advances or condescension from men. I had to leave a computer engineering program because of that kind of behavior.
There are soooooo many men who truly believe that women exist solely for the gratification of men and are otherwise inferior. Having a space where one can just learn and not have to worry about dealing with that bullshit is pretty damn valuable.
Yeah I think the general aim of these things is to increase the diversity of STEM, which has tended to be male dominated. I imagine that’s what the funding for these schemes is allocated for. Not being mansplained by some guys is probably a bonus