[cgoddard]

Behavior and humor in professional, work environments need to be held to a different standard than what might fly just between a group of friends or in a bar. In such an environment even usually harmless jokes contribute to a subtle if not overt sexist atmosphere which discourages female participation. Sure, there are always going to be some aggressive, driven women who will enter the field anyways and excel, but there are lots of other women who will end up being turned away, believe it or not.

[orblivion]

The tech sector seems to hate formality, I think this may also be part of the problem. But in this particular case, it's a hackathon, pretty informal to begin with. If this were a job description I'd agree that any sort of joke that relates to gender would be totally inappropriate.