[jblow]

But isn't that how tech conferences usually work? And doesn't that result in the kind of gender ratio problem about which there is much dismay?

Agreed, they did this in a clumsy way, but hey, they are trying something.

[brnstz]

The problem is not gender parity at conferences, but gender parity in the industry. You see the inverse at conferences in fields dominated bg women, and there are no "boy tickets".

[jaredsohn]

Maybe gender parity in a conference could help improve gender parity in industry?

It could make sense for boy tickets (perhaps with a better name) to exist in conferences in women-dominated fields, but it would be up to each conference to decide if gender parity is something they want and if they want to encourage it in this way.