It's not about the interests of anyone. It's about trying to fight sexism but instead of educating the people you try to create an environment where it can't exist. It's like trying to fight sea pollution by making swimming pools. You can enjoy your time in a pool but the pollution in the sea is still there.
If you've read any of the previous Y Combinator statements on sexism against founders, you'd know that position being taken here is one of removing inefficiencies in the system. All the women being literally chased out by male investors who are seriously abusing their power just to get their rocks off is considered to be a huge opportunity cost. A female founder conference is a workaround, and it makes you sound really out of touch to complain about it.
Okay, so let's be honest and direct and talk about the system and its inefficiencies. Because so far all this "no sexism" has everyone believe that it is about people, not "the system".
Which is why I am saying, if you care about the people - which we happen to describe with the term "females" in this case - you should strive to include them, not to create conferences, events and groups that "protect" them by isolating them.
If you wanted to do ballet tomorrow, would you prefer a "boys-only" class or a "regular" one?
By the way, thanks for the time and the effort you invest in actually discussing with me instead of just downvoting my comment - I appreciate it a lot as it is the only way for me to have a chance to understand where I am wrong and where I am right. :)
For the ballet analogy to fit, you'd have to imagine that men who attended coed classes were frequently subject to a lot of negative attention, ranging from "oh my god a male" all the way up to blatant sexual abuse. You would have to imagine men generally avoiding ballet because of this.
In such a situation, I think providing some path for men to participate at all, and thus gradually shift the balance to the point where it no longer is a big deal, would trump the more abstract general concern of "let's not ever make anything about sex." I understand that ideal, but we're not there yet. We're in a remedial situation, where VC (and much of society, to be honest) is as of yet too immature to allow that to work.
