I have noticed that some women only tech events tend to go very lightly into technical matters and lean more towards the social justice side of things and I can very easily see just how unappealing such events would be.
I'm also reasonably sure that referring to women professionals as "girls" is also one of those things you shouldn't do.
Right hand, meet left hand. These are adults, and they happen to be male/female/white/black/asian/whatever. (Unless we're actually talking about k-9 school aged females. Then girl is accurate.)
Edit: I don't get the downmod. The first thing to change is our language. They are professionals, not girls. When our language entails using that modifier, it sets the emotion starting at that point. So, set the barrier to that of men, unless you think "son" and "boy" are acceptable ways to address other male professionals.
Any good-faith view is possible to express thoughtfully, so that's what we ask of HN users.
Agreed. But this site doesn't do that. It consistently refers to women as women.
For example the about page:
> Welcome to Code Like A Girl, a space that celebrates breaking down society’s perceptions of women in technology. We believe that by providing women and girls with strong female role models we will be able to tip the gender ratio scale in tech. We hope to achieve this by amplifying the voices of women and their allies!
Or look at the Role Models section, it consistently uses women. The Girls section of the site has stories about female children.
In fact the entire article is about education and kids - girls and boys. Not professionals.