It's not society that's excluding anyone, it's one particular mentoring group.

I have no problem with all-male groups like the Freemasons, Boy Scouts, or fraternities.

I meant a society, not the society. I should have used a different word.

The things you've listed are all-male for traditional reasons. If someone were to start an all-male group now (like, say, an all-male mentoring group), it would generally be frowned upon. I was just wondering if you'd frown upon it also.

I'd think it kinda pointless and wouldn't participate myself, but no, I wouldn't frown upon it in a "should this exist?" way. People have a right to associate with folks they choose.

Edit: actually - I can't say that I wouldn't participate myself. Mentoring is mentoring - if I liked the people involved, I'd get involved.

I had no qualms when students at my college started a new all-male acapella group, or when they started "The Men's Project" (which, somewhat ironically, spent a lot of time discussing how to prevent violence against women).

* Mentoring is mentoring - if I liked the people involved, I'd get involved*

Yeah, but if it's a 50 year old male executive privately mentoring a 22 year old female CS grad, it might get a little creepy. Same thing goes for a 50 year old female executive privately mentoring a 22 year old new grad.

That's not to say that it's wrong for older people to mentor young people of another gender. It's just that the potential for creepiness is higher.

Not really. There are groups that are men's only and nobody bats an eye about it. (Sport teams, dating/relationship support groups). They just have to be something unique to men.

If there is some functional reason why a group might be all one sex, then few people would argue against it. For example, the way men act, think, are expected to behave, etc, in a dating/relationship setting is different from how women do; and importantly the behaviours that lead to success differ depending on whether you are male or femaile. So in that setting it'd be entirely appropriate to have a all-male or all-female support group.

Is being a startup founder like that? I don't know, but it seems plausible that it might be.

The boy scouts allow women it's just rare that one wants to join and there are lots of co-ed fraternities.

Oh yeah? tell that twelve year old me, who was not allowed to become a Boy Scout. Both of my brothers were Eagle Scouts.

How far did you push it? I've met one or two female scouts. Maybe they were ventures wearing the wrong uniform. :)

In order to correct for a demographic imbalance, you have to put extra attention on minority recruitment and retention in the group.

She is clearly discriminating based on gender, but she's doing it because of an observed gender imbalance.

Why do you consider a 50-50 gender balance "correct"? Few extend this idea of "correctness" to apply to homeless rates or prison populations.

I said no such thing.

I recognize there may be a biological reason why the gender split in our field is the way it is, but I feel it is probably mostly cultural. I'm using lots of qualifying words because I just don't know. It may be a combination of biological and cultural. But since I think there is a cultural component to the disparity, I'm sympathetic to people who make attempts to address it.