It will ruin women’s voices if they continue that nonsense - it’s an affectation that hurts the vocal cords.
It just isn’t healthy for anyone’s voice. I took voice as an elective during my last year of college. It took half the year to get my voice out of my throat into my vocal mask. And that was just for speaking. Once the speaking voice is repositioned, the singing voice will be as well.
http://www.learn-to-sing.com/my-voice/mask-of-the-face/