My only concern with events like this is that males could also learn from female founders advice and experiences. It just seems like a loss to forcefully segregate the audience.
I would love to attend an event that featured a female only stage. It would be a refreshing change from the current conference lineup.
Sexism is a reality in the tech industry. Something has to be done. I agree with the intention, 100% -- I am much less sure about the means. Self-segregation is only reinforcing a us-vs-them attitude. Sexism starts with a cultural attitude that ignore the issue of micro-iniquity: it starts as a mental construction based on conscious or unconscious value wrongly bestowed to the members of some broad cultural category: it's this fallacy that needs to be removed. Self-ghettoisation is, at best, a remedial plaster on a wound, at worst it makes things worse. Not to mention that us girls often partake in broad categorisations, prejudices and stereotypes, sometimes against our own 'kind' (see the women attitude described in http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/09/14/1211286109.full...)
Today the problem is women, tomorrow (and, well, today too) black people, LGBT... is it really the shortest way towards the elimination of unfair handicaps and perceptions, to tackle one 'category' at a time?
The best place to start would be to diversify the lineups at Hacker School.
If the sentiment is that female founders are uncomfortable at conferences full of male founders, then cordoning them off isn't going to help. I don't think this conference is meant to address that particular issue, but I believe it may be a by-product of it and conferences like it.
It's more than just about female founders. I'm sure there are many male founders out there who'd like to ensure that the organisations they're building are places where female employees would be happy. It can be difficult to get that perspective but the info from events like this could be valuable.
In time (assuming this event is as successful as I expect it will be), then putting more female founders and early employees on stage at their other events will help further.
Edit: Apparently it's going to be streamed [1] so I assume that will be open to all. Looking forward to it.
I'm pretty sure most men seek advice from their peer group and/or founders they know. Because there are fewer female founders, there are probably fewer dispersed among the peer groups.
Then you can attend. The invitation request form explicitly has a box to denote your gender. That implies to me that men are welcome, if they want to attend. I assume the webpage says "Are you a woman who..." because that is their target audience.
I would love to attend an event that featured a female only stage. It would be a refreshing change from the current conference lineup.