schooling a couple of my well meaning male friends as to why something like that might be appealing to women, as opposed to being arrant elitist sexist meaniehood.

Yeah, I hate that sort of shit. Also see:
"But, but it would be sexist to hire a woman on the basis of gender!" (when talking about affirmative action.)
Gee, do I hear you complaining about how male programmers have been getting hired on the basis of gender for about 50 years?