Curious as to what the justification is for having gendered chess categories in the first place, because literally the only thing I can think of ultimately amounts to they believe women are innately stupid.
@stavvers That's...pretty much it. There is a set of "women's" titles (Woman Grandmaster, etc.) that run 200 Elo points behind the corresponding "open" (ungendered) titles.
Nope, not making it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDE_titles#Woman_Grandmaster_(WGM)
For context, a difference of 200 Elo points corresponds to being able to beat a given opponent (200 points weaker) about 3/4 of the time + losing the other 1/4, or winning 1/2 the time + drawing the other 1/2. At high levels, this is a large performance difference.
@ech @stavvers Not sure what you're getting at here. In case I wasn't clear, the "this" I mention is that 200 point Elo difference. It's the (rough) performance difference (specifically, win-draw-loss record against other rated players) between a typical FIDE International Master and a typical (not exceptionally strong) FIDE International Grandmaster.
It's not hard for beginners to advance 200 Elo points in a short time (months or even weeks). Much harder at master/GM levels.