It feels like Michfest was modeled this way. Women's land, even if not constant and permanent, is so important. The men hate when we gather without them, they always have, because the power of the sisterhood is so palpable, and they fear it.

Depending on the polis, citizen wives left their homes and families for anywhere from three to ten days (and nights) to participate in this festival honoring Demeter, goddess of the harvest, and her daughter, Persephone, queen of the Underworld. Meeting outside the social constructs of marriage, the Thesmophoria evoked a time when women led autonomous lives—without male restrictions. In a society where men set the rules, a community of empowered women that challenged men’s authority struck fear in their hearts but nowhere was this male fear more evident than in the stories about the savagery of the Thesmophoria’s citizen wives. Because men were forbidden—to the point of death—from attending or witnessing any portion of this all-female festival, the Thesmophoria was notorious for its undercurrent of ferocity towards them. Stories abound about men who were subject to life-threatening and disfiguring acts of violence perpetrated by the citizen wives when they spied on or interrupted their festival in any way.

Do you have an archive of the full article? I hit a paywall.