[pp.int.general] Women in piracy

[Richard Stallman]

    So what you are saying is that we should vote for women or older people 
    even though it seems to those voting that there are better persons to do 
    the task? I think this is exactly what we should not do.

There are two general approaches to boosting the representation of
a particular underrepresented group in the higher levels of an activity:

* Explicit preferences in selecting people for the higher levels.
As you say, this is not a good idea.

* Strengthened recruitment at lower levels.

For instance, some schools in the US boosted the proportion of
certain underrepresented groups (women and some ethnic minorities)
without using quotas or reducing standards.  They did it by making
special efforts to recruit those people and coach them.  In the end,
they had to compete on the same basis as other applicants.  However, a
larger number of qualified candidates from those groups led to a
larger number acceoted.

The Pirate Parties can apply this method.  For instance, activists can
give talks at venues where there are many women, and this will
probably bring in additional female supporters.

These talks could use the usual arguments, or specially targeted
arguments, whichever ones are effective.

This is not unfair to anyone.