I believe it is best to vote for witnesses based on merit.
I know 100s of good male computer techs and a handful of females.
Thus, when you get a system like the steem block-chain, and to run a full witness is complex and expensive. It takes a good deal of computer know how.
Thus, speaking of "equality" in such a situation is going to shoot yourself in the foot. You are now speaking of voting for the women, because they are the only women.
I will keep an eye on them as witnesses. But only vote for witnesses that i have a good knowledge of there technical expertise and their level headedness concerning politics.
I absolutely agree, Witnesses should be based on merit.
AND there are plenty of Women who are running current tech projects, coding on the blockchain and can comfortably admin a Linux server, with MadTech skillz that far outdo many males, who are currently on the top 50 Witness list. INCLUDING some males who continue on the list, and are inactive, yet, seem to be making money or taking up spots.
We might ask, given the Steemit often has slowdowns, related to the time it takes to validate blockchain, why are current witnesses, or anyone for that matter, voting for Inactive Witnesses?
The best men far outdo any women programmer that i know.
Sorry, this is a field that is loved by men, and so has a lot of very strong men. Yes there are women who can program well. However, of the ones i know, i would only put 2 into the top tier. That's less than 2%.
It is what it is. Look at fields like elementary school, where you have the opposite demographic.
Voting for witnesses is actually a pain in the butt, requiring you to get out your keys.
Most people set them and forget them.
You have to go to a completely separate site to get good technical data on what each witness is doing.
And, often, you have to type the name of the witness you want to vote for. You cannot just click. You cannot just choose your top 20 and press confirm.
So, there's your reasons.