Some people are questioning why there are gender-specific categories in chess.
That's a good question and my understanding is that there is only a female category and then the general one where both men and women can participate. The female one seems to have been created to encourage the participation of women due to the general one being monopolized by men.
You may agree or not with that reasoning and I am not trying to take any stance on it, just trying to answer the questions on why they created a gender-specific category in the first place.
I am not really into chess competitions and my understanding of this point is based on explanations I saw from others elsewhere, so I may be wrong.