Why do people jump to the conclusion that "specifically recruiting women" = "lowering standards". It is actually a logical fallacy.
Suppose you wanted turkeys at least 10kg in weight. Suppose that there are only wild turkeys, either white or gray, with a 90/10 population white/gray.
Well, since you need to find and catch turkeys, it turns out that catching white turkeys is easier just because they are easier to see! So you end up with 10 big fat white turkeys and no gray turkeys at all. Are gray turkeys slimmer on average? Worse? Different distribution? No. They are just harder to find.
After a while, all the big fat white turkeys are gone, because everyone is grabbing them up.
But hey there's whole population of big fat gray turkeys that you _can't even see_.
This is why it is rational to specifically recruit women.
Even from a purely self-interested point of view, it's an untapped market. It'd be stupid not to recruit women. In fact, not hiring women would mean that you eventually have to lower your standards _for men_.