I can't speak for all women, but as a female developer, I definitely find this event discouraging. I hate being seen as "female dev" instead of just a dev. The last thing I want to do is go to an event that is based on this distinction and could possibly be used as evidence that I am less skilled at my job because of my gender. This is why I only feel truly comfortable at all-women hackathons. It's the only place where I can believe with reasonable certainty that if I mess up it won't lead to a generalization like this: http://xkcd.com/385/