Stephanie Burns came up with the idea for Chic CEO, a free online platform for female entrepreneurs, in 2008, when she was getting her MBA. Many of her friends had lost jobs in the recession and were asking her for tips on how to start their own businesses. After hosting about 15 friends at her San Diego home to exchange advice, Burns realized there was a market for offering entrepreneurial guidance to women. A year later, she launched her company.

Up until 2014, the focus of her work involved providing practical business advice to women in the form of free, easy-to-follow online materials. Every so often, Burns also organized networking events for women at which attendees could sip cocktails and chat about work. It was to one of these gatherings, held at an Italian restaurant last April in downtown San Diego, that two men showed up.

Rava has been involved in lawsuits against MLB teams for handing out free goodies such as hats and tote bags only to women on Mother’s Day.

What happened next would be the fuel for lawsuits against her, her company, the company that her business partner’s husband owned and the restaurant. It would ultimately lead to the demise of Burns’ company, and still threatens to derail the women-in-tech events that have begun popping up in Silicon Valley.

Two men named Allan Candelore and Rich Allison, who had each prepaid a $20 registration fee on the Chic CEO website, tried to enter the restaurant. According to a legal complaint that they later filed with National Coalition for Men president Harry Crouch, Burns turned them away at the door, saying the event “was only open to women.” They took a photo, left the premises, then promptly initiated legal action, turning to a 1959 California law originally written to prevent discrimination against minorities and women.

Burns first learned about the suit against Chic CEO as she was taping a webcast episode with a male friend called “Why Men Are So Important to Female Entrepreneurship.” She glanced at her phone and saw a text from her colleague’s husband, who had just been served legal papers because his company promoted a mixer she’d hosted. Burns was devastated.

“That was the most ironic moment of my life,” she told Yahoo News. “I was just explaining how it’s important that men are on our side.”

Burns had even consulted with a lawyer before holding the event and was assured that everything was above board. Her company had male clients, subscribers, mentors and advisory board members.

“I was completely confused,” she said. “Chic CEO does not discriminate against men.”

Business as usual

For Alfred G. Rava, however, this scenario was very familiar. The lawyer representing Allison, Candelore and Crouch has built a career around gender-discrimination lawsuits, filing approximately 150 complaints against California businesses over the past 15 years, according to CNN Money. Rava runs his own law firm in San Diego, and, as the secretary for the National Coalition for Men, he offers free consultation for NCFM members who feel they’ve experienced public discrimination because of their gender.

Crouch — who has said that if Ray Rice’s fiancée "hadn’t aggravated him, she wouldn’t have been hit" — recently described Rava as a “friend,” a “true civil rights advocate” and a “hero” who is “largely responsible for stopping discrimination against men in the strange state of California at great risk to his safety, health, and profession," in a blog post on the NCFM website. (Yahoo News attempted to reach Crouch several times, but he did not respond.) On three occasions, Rava has been involved in lawsuits against professional baseball teams for handing out free goods such as hats and tote bags only to women on Mother’s Day or similar women-focused events.

Though Rava's legal campaigns are not directly sponsored by the NCFM, his efforts are just one part of the men’s rights movement that exists in the United States and across the globe. A variety of groups — including A Voice for Men, the National Center for Men, the Men’s Rights Association and the ManKind Initiative — first began popping up in the 1970s as a rebuke to feminism. In the age of the Internet, their activism exists both in the online network known as the “manosphere” and at yearly meetings like the International Conference on Men’s Issues.



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