It's also surprising that this got buried with no upvotes and no comments, was it mod-nuked?
On the political level, (putting aside whether gender is actually a factor in this specific case)- I actually don't mind diversity hires in situations like this where you have some sort of representative body. What sticks in the throat is the attempt to have it both ways. When people in power make statements that X (objectively less qualified candidate) is equally qualified as the other candidates, and that ALSO criticizing female candidates is disallowed and they have better "perspective", it's dishonest which normally leads to trouble.
Decisions should be transparent, if gender is going to be a factor, whichever side of the debate you sit on that should be made transparent, and disallowing criticism is obviously a bad idea.