Why the separation between men and women?

This kind of discrimination enrages me. We used to have chess tournaments at school when I was young. The boys were seated on chairs with the board on the table in front of them, and the girls were made to sit on the floor. Such kind of things, along with thinking that women are not that good at chess, are seriously ridiculous.

men are smarter

Yes, but it is one reason FIDE can't just pretend everything is equal everywhere. That's the reason separate titles were originally created, and why they are not being phased out now.

Yes Sea_Turtle. Smart in putting women down :peaceful

I've seen this kind of question multiple times -- not just in chess. In high school I remember seeing it asked on the Art of Problem Solving forums (geared towards mathy students) something like, how is it fair the Math Prize for Girls (a competition) is a thing? What if there was Math Prize for Boys?
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I think many people, especially those who have limited related experiences, underestimate the degree to which the kind of social environment you have access to is part of your success. To me, women's tournaments are a very logical and reasonable measure to encourage female participation.

Women and people of color are discriminated against way too much still!

And yet, Black History MONTH is February while Women's History MONTH is March?

Women and people of color deserve more all 12 months, and yet, you whine about what men get when in reality, the other 10 months still unfairly favor them!

Bold claim, given that there are stark differences in the physical characteristics of men and women. I doubt you have a valid source.
This topic has been beaten to death many times, but let me just say anyway: I won't deny that there may be differences (overall) in the minds/personalities of men and women, but it's so common to overlook the effects of the social environment (no matter how many times this is reiterated, it seems). The existence of women's competitions does not have to do with women's minds being "different". It has to do with the underrepresentation of women in chess.

Even if true, bringing this up in this context is misleading and unhelpful, because like I said, the reason for women's tournaments does not have to do with "differences" between men and women.
"You'd be hard pressed to find a healthy and reasonable adult, that goes outside and has any interactions with the opposite sex who would tell you otherwise."
Okay, so, I'm over 18, and I have interactions with men, and no....I'm not at all buying the idea that they differ from me more in terms of their "minds/personalities" than their physical appearances.
Obviously, not too many men are shorter than me, their facial structures and figures are different, they grow facial hair where I don't, etc. However, I don't think that I feel much difference in genders when interacting with my male friends (edited to be more concise, haha). Idk, yes I believe there are differences (otherwise I might befriend more guys), but I don't believe they are as drastic as you claim.

What's telling about "even if true"? I'm pointing out that your argument is not even relevant to the original question, and you have (very logically) completely ignored that point.
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Feel free to accuse me of not caring about facts or perspectives while you make vague claims without citations or substantiation....ok. "People can find a way to take offense to anything even if it doesn't have any bearing on themselves." Why do you think it has no bearing on me? If it's because you think I won't ever be titled, well, probably that's true, but I care about female representation in chess and it does affect me.
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"It's a bit insensitive if you hope to ruin what is, for them and their taste, a good thing."
What am I ruining, exactly? I'm for these competitions, and as I said earlier, I think there are good and valid reasons for them. I just said they have to do with the social environment rather than mental "differences". I'm a veteran of female competitions myself (3x Honorable mention + gold, silver, and bronze medals in Math Prize for Girls.)

3 layers deep...

8th of March
This will be my last response to you. I feel that you are trying to provoke me with exaggerated comments, so clearly there is no use in trying to apply reason in talking to you.
I need to point out how strongly I believe you are not a woman based on the fact that you have as your pfp a picture of a girl in swimwear on the beach. Hardly any sane female player will do that on chess.com. I hope I do not need to explain why. And I find it despicable behavior for men to put a misleading female pfp.
So, when I see a picture like that, well, I definitely do not want to listen to or pay attention to his thoughts about genders.
That's it. I'm out of here. I don't like arguing here, anyway.

I'd be interested in actual facts; scientific studies you might cite that prove that the genders "have starker differences in their minds" than in their bodies.

Also, women can only play in open tournaments where such tournaments actually exist; there are hundreds of millions of women that live in places where such events are strictly illegal.

Okay. Fine. No need to respond to your ad hominem attack. But I will make one last comment.....you're very skilled at the manipulative technique of painting someone as too emotional, and thus distracting from their arguments and discrediting them. Especially if the other person is, unlike you, female -- thus making it easier to discredit them.
Great job at showcasing how logical you are.

What, no real facts to back up your prejudices? And regardless of the reason for such intra-gender competition, such conditions do exist and FIDE does have to operate throughout the entire real world.

Personally I think it's not that women can't play against men, but that they simply don't want to.

You are the one making claims about the nature and extent of gender differences. It is incumbent on the claimant to provide substantiation of their opinion. And you need only examine this and other similar forums to see that there are great numbers among the "chess world" that do not subscribe to your opinions.

But I say it has NOT been established. It's simply your personal prejudice. Your postulate is unsubstantiated and incorrect. Thank-you for your promise to refrain from further iteration of this ridiculous point.

As I said, I am interested in seeing any actual facts you have. So far you have provided none. This is the usual recourse of someone whose beliefs are baseless opinions.

Eh... that's a pretty low bar. The physical differences are so small it's easy to imagine an alien race not being able to tell us apart male vs female. At least those certain kinds of fish and birds have crazy stuff like the female being 100x larger or the male having colorful feathers.

Anyway, on top of "even larger mental differences" not saying much, people don't play chess with "emotional needs" (whatever that means specifically).

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In my experience females and males play chess the same way and with equal success. The graphs of the ratings of middle aged male and female FIDE players almost completely overlap. The difference is only the extreme outliers (2700 club) that can easily be explained by "you need a large base population before seeing very rare individuals."

But anyway, you don't deserve a serious response since it seems you're trolling... just adding my voice to a few who've disagreed.

I see you can't live up to your promise to stop wasting your breath here. Still no real facts to back up your wild claims.