[Glenn E. Meyer]

Being cranky - I'm going to say that I wonder if the animus against such an event is really some theoretical civil rights/discrimination view point or some problem with women as a group.

I've seen that before. At a meeting, we discussed the use of chairman. Using chairperson, chairman and chairwoman seemed stilted. We decided to call folks simply 'the chair'. Some old guy started the blah, blah. These women - blah, blah. I'm not a chair, that's furniture.

I suggested we could call him the stool - to end the argument.