To encourage female participation and representation. Most people think it would be good for chess long-term to have a larger female player base.

There are "Open" (anyone can enter) and "Women" (only women can enter) events.

If you did not have the "Women" category, then you would see only men play in these events as there are no active women in the top 100.

There are no men prizes/tournament. But there are women tournaments and prizes.

it's not "mens" prize btw, usually the tournaments are "women" and "open"

There are currently no active women players ranked within the top 100 overall.

Like a lot of men dominated spaces, even when we know ability is not a definying factor, culture is.

Many male domianted spaces are pretty antagonistic to women, making separate prize pools, tournaments and events allows for women to play in spaces where they are the mayority. Normalise their participation and open the door to better performance on the mixed queue.

you know why.