I don't really post my opinion much on here, but for the sake of adding more to the discussion from a female perspective, I'll give it a go. :tu
I don't think the WCA should divide records into "female" world records and "male" world records. I've skimmed through this thread a bit and I don't think that anyone has really been pushing hard for that change to be made. The question here is whether female rankings should be displayed or easily accessible on the WCA website.
Besides one's name, the three basic components of information for a WCA profile are one's country, age, and gender. With country information, we can determine national and continental records. For a while on the WCA site's statistics section, you could find age related statistics pertaining to the oldest competitors, youngest competitors, youngest to solve the cube blindfolded, etc. Noticeably nothing has ever been done with the third statistic, gender.
Consider these statements: "Sebastian Weyer is officially the fastest 4x4 solver in the world." "Rami Sbahi is officially the youngest world record holder." "Emily Wang is the fastest female cuber." Of course all of these are true, and all are based off of WCA results, however only the middle (edit: make that the first, my bad) statistic is easily accessible on the WCA site. The WCA focuses on reporting results akin to the first; results based off of one's speed and citizenship alone without regard to age or gender. That isn't to say that people cannot find results like the other two meaningful or interesting, and that people should not have any interest in or report results like those.
If I recall correctly (not certain on the accuracy of this), I remember reading that age statistics are no longer accessible because there was the possibility that younger cubers could be pushed into cubing perhaps rather unwilling so they could be that statistic. If this is so, I think the implications of displaying or having access to female results are much less worrisome.
I think the main concern people have is what sort of suggestions one might think the WCA would be making if they in any way decided to recognize any statistic other than one's country and official times. However, people still have interest in finding information about statistics other than just one's country and official times. I don't think we would have to worry about much harm being done if female results were accessible through the statistics or miscellaneous portions of the WCA website, rather than through a distinguishable filter on the main rankings page.
It seems the basic criteria to become a category on the miscellaneous or statics sections are somewhat as followed:
1. People will find it meaningful or interesting.
2. There is enough information about the statistic.
I think at the minimum statistics about female results seem to meet the criteria (1 arguably more than 2), and if they were to be implemented or accessible on the WCA site, the miscellaneous or statistics page seem to be the most appropriate places for the results to be.
. And I've been thinking about referring to external sites at least since stats.cubing.net.
