[hackinthebochs]

The goal is to give women a welcoming place where they feel comfortable contributing and can find support and mentorship that is geared towards them. For example, in your typical tech circle, you might have a gender ratio of 80% men and 20% women. If a woman asks a question to this group about an experience where being female is relevant, she will likely get most if not all answers from a male's perspective. This obviously can be off-putting, especially if she is forced to justify her experience instead of receiving any useful advice.

Another example is exposure. Even in a purely meritocratic environment, those who get exposure will be heavily weighted, even sometimes exclusively, towards men. This can give the impression that tech is explicitly for men. Carving out a space for women's minority voices to be seen and heard over the hoards of men is useful for those women and other women considering getting into tech. Representation matters, and seeing people like you succeed gives you confidence that you can succeed as well.