The disadvantage of excluding women (or men) is far too large. Just like any other rationalist, they have information, experience and perspective that is valuable. And more so than rationalists of the same gender as you, they can share near insight about issues personal to women and far insight into issues personal to men, that is extremely rare to find among men or a group of men. There is a whole realm of gender related affective death spirals that are terribly easy to fall into in segregated gender groups. This applies to almost any other significant culture gap as well (black/white, rich/poor urban/rural etc.).
There’s a common error described some places as “privilege blindness” referring to how easy it is for those who are privileged in some way to go through life completely oblivious to the way the world works for those who do not share that good fortune. This is a classic example of an affective death spiral, and will be a huge potential pitfall for any all-male or even mostly male group.
It might make sense for larger groups with plenty of both genders to have some separate meetings, and that’s a worthy experiment. But keeping apart indefinitely seems extremely unwise.
Parent upvoted even though I disagree strongly, because this is an issue worth discussing and bringing in empirical data.
The disadvantage of excluding women (or men) is far too large. Just like any other rationalist, they have information, experience and perspective that is valuable. And more so than rationalists of the same gender as you, they can share near insight about issues personal to women and far insight into issues personal to men, that is extremely rare to find among men or a group of men. There is a whole realm of gender related affective death spirals that are terribly easy to fall into in segregated gender groups. This applies to almost any other significant culture gap as well (black/white, rich/poor urban/rural etc.).
There’s a common error described some places as “privilege blindness” referring to how easy it is for those who are privileged in some way to go through life completely oblivious to the way the world works for those who do not share that good fortune. This is a classic example of an affective death spiral, and will be a huge potential pitfall for any all-male or even mostly male group.
It might make sense for larger groups with plenty of both genders to have some separate meetings, and that’s a worthy experiment. But keeping apart indefinitely seems extremely unwise.
Parent upvoted even though I disagree strongly, because this is an issue worth discussing and bringing in empirical data.