> I'm actually pretty flattered that you'd like me to come to these events. There's just little in it for me, while you guys get some good publicity with me and my fine lady coder friends in attendance while you take the obligatory geek girls are cute picture.
I can understand not wanting to feel like she's on display (since regardless of how true it is that she would be--which I personally don't doubt--it sounds like she would feel that way).
We shouldn't have to pretend that it's not weird for the one girl who shows up to what was an all-guys event. We should figure out how to get the gender ratio closer to even in the first place so that it's not a big deal when girls show up - no pretending necessary.
It's a good example of the fact that it's very hard for people from an underrepresented group to break into something that's traditionally not "their field". I feel a lot of respect for the ones who are brave enough to be among the first ones (and who aren't naturally the sort who enjoy the extra attention they get, be it positive or negative--which I'm going to guess from this post that the OP is not).