It's for times where fiction says one gender is basically genetically and physiologically incapable of doing something the other can. Yes, the restriction is necessary because this is how the trope is used in fiction.
It's more "men can't enter wizarding school because males don't have magical ability at all in this world".
My question was really whether works in which one gender is culturally excluded should be excluded from this list, because it seems to me they're using a fundamentally similar trope.
Also, there's plenty of scope for ambiguity - a cultural restriction might be justified, in-universe, as a biological one - "women can't enter wizarding school because everyone knows they aren't strong enough to do magic" - but be left ambiguous as to whether that's true or not.
Edited by johnnye
The example from Avatar The Last Airbender seems to be a form of cultual gender divide.
If this is a trope about magic, why does it allow real life examples?
"This trope doesn't apply to cultural gender divides, only to times when one gender simply cannot use the others magic or powers."
Was this intended to exclude examples like "women can't be knights", or examples like "women can't use magic because only men are allowed to enter Wizarding School"? If the former, it should probably be worded "...doesn't apply to mundane gender divides..."; if the latter, I wonder whether this restriction is necessary.
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