I can't find it now, but there's a video of one of Ben Horowitz's lectures where he says one benefit of hiring women is that they communicate more openly and effectively, at least with each other. If a woman feels marginalized by another woman during a meeting, she's more likely to communicate that and solve the problem, rather than holding onto it.

I don't know if this is true or not, but since there was no backlash over this, it goes to show that context and tone influences what's seen as disparaging.