Hi Sarah, the terms of use come from the Foundation.
Sarah,
I know this is a tangent to what you're talking about, but I think it's an important point. Last year's rewrite of the terms of use was guided by Foundation staff, but in my view and that of many others was a model project for how to follow the knowledge and wisdom that exists within our community. There was draft text from WMF counsel, but in a two month+ period it was radically altered and expanded by a process led by numerous volunteers and community members. WMF staff provided legal expertise, but went out of itse way to express that the knowledge of how to align the TOU with the movement's goals resided primarily within the community, and created a space in which that could be explored and articulated.
While it does not do much to address concerns about gender, I believe that the TOU rewrite was a big success, both in terms of modeling how the volunteer community can lead and WMF can facilitate and play a support role; and also in terms of the quality of the final document.
Of course, these documents can be rewritten, and I'm sure this one will be rewritten in a few years. Before that, though, will be a rewrite of the Privacy Policy, which actually may be a more suitable document for some of these concerns. I encourage everyone on this list to participate when the time comes for that, which I think will be a matter of weeks or months.