&gt; at several degrees of removal it&#x27;s impossible for us to know the difference.<p>Then maybe we should defer to the people directly involved.  I mean, look.  If these women say they feel uncomfortable at male-dominated hackerspaces, is it really such a stretch to believe that it&#x27;s becuase <i>they actually feel uncomfortable at male-dominated hackerspaces</i>?<p>There&#x27;s no harm here.  Let them hack where they want to.  Our job as the dominant members of the subculture is just to shut up about it and not be thin-skinned nutjobs.