As Brendan has indicated here Pirate Party Australia is looking at ways to address the gender imbalance in our organisation. As this thread indicates, our internal culture isn’t what is contributing to this. We have had a few instances of people saying discriminatory things within the organisation, but these cases have been pointed out and sharply criticised. Whilst most of our members are polite and not prone to trolling other members, actively opposing discriminatory actions has built a culture where such behaviour is not acceptable.
I think we get implicated by association with sexism in both IT and gamer communities. Whilst our internal culture seems to be okay, articles like this and this reflect poorly on the wider Tech culture and influence pre-conceptions about us.
We need to do more as an organisation to address discrimination in society in order to have broader participation in PPAU. I think there is a general feeling that enough is enough, with games.on.net announcing that they will not tolerate anyone opposed to equality and we should find ways to contribute to the fight-back against sexist (and other discriminatory) behaviour.
I’m not entirely sure what we can do to contribute to the discussion as an organisation, without going beyond our role as political campaigners. Within that limitation, I think a minor action that could help is financially subsidising active female members to encourage their attendance at conferences.
More broadly I think there needs to be zero tolerance of abuse across all areas of the Tech sector. We have to speak out against discrimination and abuse where we encounter it.
I am hoping other members have better ideas, because I think my idea is not enough.