That's a fair point. It's hard to pin down why fewer women apply. Is it cultural, social, our industry? Are these things that a single company can sort out or change? How would you encourage or solve the problem of too few women applying, without crossing the ethical, gray, broad boundary of discrimination?
Fewer women apply because there are fewer women in the field. It's that simple. If you consider that a problem, the author of the article is trying to solve it at the end of the road, when the solution lies at the beginning. The beginning is in school, and the problem is most certain sociological.
I'm not familiar with and female design groups, but if you are hiring a developer for example, you could advertise to one of the many female tech/programming groups that exist, while at the same time searching for an equal amount of male candidates. Or he could recruit by going along with his plan at the university, but instead setting a personal goal to reach out to an equal number of males and females, and not just saying "women only, sorry". Work on getting an equal number of applicants, then ignore their gender and only choose them based on their experience/education.
