First of all, I want to take one thing out of the way: there is an existent and quite strong idea floating around that men having their own spaces is bad, and when such spaces get organized, it can be for no other reason than disdain for women originating from men's personal insecurity.

The reality, of course, is rather different. Men don't usually organize their spaces for the sake of excluding women; and in lots of cases, currently male-dominated fields started as either female-dominated or mixed (look no further than software development). Men organize their spaces as efficiency-oriented institutions. For that reason, Yes, after spending several years surrounded by almost exclusively men and witnessing several women try to join and fail on their merits, of course participants of such institutions will develop certain prejudice; sometimes not even "unconscious".

But the only thing a woman needs to get fully accepted - is to prove herself capable and responsible just once. If you know how to get things together and done, nobody will ever question your character because of the contents of your pants. Case in point - women in Balkan military during WW1. Milunka Savić, Flora Sandes, Sofija Jovanović, Ecaterina Teodoroiu, and many others whose names got lost in history.

Hence, women who claim that "honorary male gatekeeping" is somehow sexist and harmful - are the ones who cannot get things together and done. And these women tend to be pathologically fixated on the idea of destroying male spaces, lowering the standards of acceptance, or aiming at full gender parity on all stages of institutional hierarchy. Any person who listens to such women and believes them, makes a great mistake.

CMV, I guess? Links to any supplementary sources highly appreciated.