This is going to be long.
The original language in question is "初心者の方や女性の方でも安心".
初心者の方=a beginner or beginners.
女性の方=a woman or women.
でも=sometimes like an adverb "even", sometimes totally different.
安心=state or act of not having to worry, nothing to be bothered with, feeling safe and comfortable.
Ricoh is saying "this is a friendly environment for anybody". If you twist people's arms to give you a direct translation about でも, some will say "even beginners and women" but that doesn't mean "even if you're a beginner or woman who don't usually belong to this kind of thing". It's more like
"Even if you have some hesitations as a beginner or a woman, don't worry, this is a welcoming place for you and anybody else."
If you REALLY want to have a glimpse of social aspect of this, google 女性でも安心 and you'll find hundreds of things that are supposedly friendly and worry-free for women. Apartment with great security, disposal business that sends people to haul your heavy items away, gym with female instructors and spacious clean shower/locker/change room, you can find pretty much anything that is advertised or reviewed as 女性でも安心. (BTW these are real examples found by googling.)
They don't mean that women are usually unwelcome/unworthy/inferior. If they do they'll lose customers. Rather, 女性でも安心 is perceived, at least in the eyes of advertisers, as an added benefit which may attract women more than men. Maybe something is inconvenient or intimidating or unsafe or just not worth it for whatever reason for a substantial subset of women when these same things are considered OK by most men. (There are thousands of male-specific ads too, but 安心 isn't used as often when specifically targeting men.)
For example, the advertiser of that apartment is likely thinking that "you won't be bothered by stalkers, aggressive sales agents and thugs" is a great differentiator and some women will prefer this apartment over competitor's. Therefore, even though an added security is great for me too as a man in his 50's, they have to add 女性でも安心 to get these women's attention.
Getting back to Ricoh, why do they say 安心? What's there to worry about, it's just a photo walk, right? I can only guess, so let me make things up below.
First, Ricoh assumes that beginners (female and male alike) are probably worried about a lot of things. What if the lecturer sees your most basic questions ("but what does ISO mean?") as a hindrance/distraction to others. Maybe you're worried to find that your pictures are so much inferior to others'. Maybe a self-proclaimed "experienced" participant wants to teach you why your picture and technique and everything sucks. Either way, not worth the bother.
Second, Ricoh knows that participants are going to be mostly middle aged and older men. And Ricoh is probably aware of the phenomenon of mansplaining. Some of them might try to hit on a female participant, which might be an added annoyance. Not worth the bother.
Third, Ricoh knows that some just categorically equate women and beginners, therefore women are likely targeted by mansplainers and beginner-bashers at the same time. Not worth the bother, doubly.
Assuming that having fun is a focus of this event, Ricoh wanted to say "hey, don't worry, this is a nice friendly event for everybody, we promise you a safe environment, you're welcome regardless of who you are". That's the spirit of this and that's why many (I say most) are OK with this.
Well, that was a long preface!
My opinion about this is, unless Ricoh specifically explains why something is good for women and why something else is good for beginners, there's no denying that it sounds a bit like women are categorically put into the same bin as beginners. There's no need for that, they could have just written どなたでも安心 or "friendly/safe/welcoming for anybody" and be done with that.
Originally posted by kypfer From an "official" Pentax posting :-
"PENTAX Walk in Asakusa" will be held this Saturday
Spaces available now due to cancellations.
Deadline is tomorrow 6/23 (Wednesday) at 1:00 pm
It's a relaxed workshop using the entry model PENTAX K-70, so even beginners or women, feel free to participate.
see PENTAX Walk in Asakusa June 25 (Sat) | PENTAX official for the original!
I wonder if this is a mis-interpretation or does it actually reflect different attitudes to those we have come to expect in the "west"