Responses to several subthreads, all mixed up:
So, Alphax said something... ill-considered at best. If I hadn't been one of the first to see the post, I wouldn't have responded, either, not out of intimidation but because I don't see the need to pile on. It was a tactless and ill-judged posting, and someone should have said something about it; someone did and I don't see the need for *everyone* to, particularly if it had been then left and everyone went on talking about the primary topic of the thread.
It's interesting for me to read of the private responses kc has received: I find it hard to think of myself feeling intimidated at the thought of responding to that, and I normally consider myself more timid than most. If I ever feel intimidated on the list (and sometimes I do), it's because I think I'm less knowledgeable about the subject being discussed or because I have a very unpopular opinion; this feeling is not unique to Wikimedia lists, and not even different for me on mostly-female lists. I'm surprised to hear of so many women feeling intimidated over concerns of sexism here because I simply haven't experienced it -- or perhaps I have and am oblivious to it.
(As for the idea that any criticism of the position that there is bias here would be held as evidence of misogyny -- if the criticism expressed so far were more genuine and less antagonistic it would be better received. Responding antagonistically and then holding up the fact that you were attacked for it does not help make the argument that reasonable criticism also would be attacked.)
I don't know of any of our policies in particular that are unfriendly to women, and so I don't know how they would be changed to be more female-friendly. If I do see a problem it is with the users and their interactions and not with the policies themselves, which seem fairly neutral; I'd like to see examples of policies and processes that others believe *are* harmful in this way.
If anything, I think "female" topics (whatever they may be) would be more welcoming -- less contentious, fewer people fighting over them. (Aside from the hot-buttons: abortion, etc.) My own areas of interest are for the most part uncontentious; I don't know that I would have the patience to stick around long if my primary interests were hot-button politics or religion, where personal beliefs, characteristics, and affiliations of all sorts are brought into the unending arguments.
The thread has gone somewhat off the original topic in discussing the extreme harassment against female editors, which, yes, I have experienced as well. Everyone agrees that it's horrible and generally that the people who engage in it should be banned into oblivion. However, I don't think that it is Wikipedia policy or process enabling it, save that Wikipedia is part of the internet and that sadly a woman who reveals her gender online is probably going to be harassed; really the only way to avoid it anywhere is anonymity. (Men have been harassed this way on WP too, though it's indeed less common, and they are only targeted by plain creepy jerks, not creepy jerk misogynists.)
The coverage issues that the thread started with are more interesting to me. Why are topics that are traditionally of female interest, whatever they are, less well-covered? My completely-unsupported-by-evidence anecdotal conjecture is that the intersection of people interested in those topics with the people who spend a lot of time online and think it would be enjoyable to edit an online encyclopedia is somewhat less than that with, say, those who are interested in computing and military history. (I'm not one of the people, incidentally: I have little knowledge of many traditionally female-interest topics, which is part of why I spend so much time online in the first place.)
And I don't know that changing the way we work is the way to change that -- we have to bring them here first. It seems that they don't care much that we exist, or realize that they can edit, or know what the policies are that they might object to; if we want these subjects covered I would suggest reaching out to the places where enthusiasts of these topics share information (magazines, specialty forums, etc) and helping them get started, maybe even encouraging them to adapt or release material they've already written elsewhere. But as far as I can tell the potential writers aren't even here to do that.
-Kat