Years ago I attended a talk by a friend of mine on the Feminist Anarchist Movement (she is part of the Women Studies crowd should have her Ph.D. by now). Near the beginning of her talk she mentioned that even in very liberal or anarchist movements the women were often relegated to getting the boys coffee. Even when they weren't actively excluded, the women found it very hard to participate in the conversation. The discussion styles were male dominated and women had trouble joining in.
We were sitting at a meeting of mostly anarchist and feminists, led by a strong woman. The room was about 50/50 men and women and she had just mentioned that women often found it hard to talk in these kinds of forums. So I sat back and watched, to see how it would play out.