[nitwit005]

> That is exactly sexism – the subtle, insidious kind that us men tend not to even notice

Suppose there is a group of girls at a high school is approached by a single guy that doesn't know them. What is the odds of being welcomed into the conversation without any questioning looks? At least at the high school I went to, it'd pretty low odds. As a consequence, guys learned not to do that.

That stuff carries forward, even if the situation has changed somewhat. You have a population of men trying to be polite. They're not going to approach groups that have given them negative feedback before, because they don't want to be a jerk.

[deanCommie]

Once again: "you and them are all professionals at a conference."

You aren't in high school.

You aren't facing a clique of girls who happen to all live in the same neighborhood and have radically different interests likes and dislikes from you.

You're facing a group of top industry professionals self-selected from around the region/country/world (depending on how large/prestigious of a conference it is).

And the fact that you don't understand this distinction, the fact that you think it's legitimate for a man to categories "groups of women" as "cliques of mean girls" from high school onwards without reflecting or reevaluating the changing circumstances is why society (and more specifically YOU) still have a long way to go to understand what sexism is and is not.

[nitwit005]

Kindly think a little deeper into what you're reading instead of leaping to insult people.

There is a difference between explaining why people do things and approving of it? I was literally explaining why the "insidious" sexism existed. I even quoted what I wanted to elaborate on.