“I recently got an email from a middle manager that began, ‘So Julie, how are the women at GitHub?’ I said, ‘You should ask them.’” What is so wrong

“I recently got an email from a middle manager that began, ‘So Julie, how are the women at GitHub?’ I said, ‘You should ask them.’” What is so wrong with that email? I can see how it could be misconstrued by someone with a chip on their shoulder, but I could also see the original sender thinking that that is a totally innocent constructive question to posit to a woman who has been with the company for a long time. I would expect men to know more about what's going on with the men in a company and for the women to know more about what's going with women in a company. At the end of the day there are conversations at work with are always inappropriate and conversations at work which are inappropriate to have with members of the opposite gender, but are likely not to be considered inappropriate by members of the same sex. Or am I just missing something here.