Sexism is a reality in the tech industry. Something has to be done. I agree with the intention, 100% -- I am much less sure about the means. Self-segregation is only reinforcing a us-vs-them attitude. Sexism starts with a cultural attitude that ignore the issue of micro-iniquity: it starts as a mental construction based on conscious or unconscious value wrongly bestowed to the members of some broad cultural category: it's this fallacy that needs to be removed. Self-ghettoisation is, at best, a remedial plaster on a wound, at worst it makes things worse. Not to mention that us girls often partake in broad categorisations, prejudices and stereotypes, sometimes against our own 'kind' (see the women attitude described in http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/09/14/1211286109.full...)

Today the problem is women, tomorrow (and, well, today too) black people, LGBT... is it really the shortest way towards the elimination of unfair handicaps and perceptions, to tackle one 'category' at a time?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality

The best place to start would be to diversify the lineups at Hacker School.

If the sentiment is that female founders are uncomfortable at conferences full of male founders, then cordoning them off isn't going to help. I don't think this conference is meant to address that particular issue, but I believe it may be a by-product of it and conferences like it.