College Libertarians are trying to increase the number of young women in their ranks and even held a recent conference in DC to brainstorm ideas.

Oliver Darcy of Campus Reform has the story.

College libertarians host panel to attract women to movement

More than 100 student activists from across the nation piled into an overflowing room at the Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, to brainstorm strategies for increasing the number of women activists in the libertarian movement.

The panel, entitled “Girls! Girls! Girls!: Marketing Libertarianism to Women,” featured YouTube personality Julie Borowski, Reason magazine’s Cathy Reisenwitz, and Young Americans for Liberty’s Bonnie Kristian.

Predictably, the vast majority of attendees were male.

The discussion commenced with all three panelists acknowledging a disparity in the ratio of male-to-female activists exists in the libertarian movement.

“[O]bviously I think there is a gender imbalance in the movement,” said Julie Borowski.

Borowski added that she felt the imbalance might be in part because women care more about fitting into society than men.

“Women tend to care more about fitting in,” she said. “I do think there is a barrier for entry to women because it’s not part of popular culture yet.”

The other panelists chimed in, arguing the disparity might be because of faulty marketing.

“[The] Democrats’ tones are generally perceived as hopeful and friendly, where Republicans are seen as the angry old men telling women of the world to get off their lawn,” said Kristian.

However, while Borowski, Reisenwitz, and Kristian all acknowledged a problem, the panel didn’t appear to provide any silver bullets.

The panelists tossed around various solutions throughout the 45-minute session, from better implementing libertarian philosophy into pop culture to improving basic marketing towards women.