As with most things in life.
> And it could be argued that the fact that there are
> more male keywords
> listed than female is somehow sexist or something.
> But I think that there
> are counter-arguments to that, and that it's a quite
> unintentional error.
> More about the experiences of the writers than an
> attempt to denigrate women
> (if one plays only with men who play only men - a
> common thing in RPGs -
> then it's not surprising at all).
"Do not ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence" may be a relevant quote here, though I find it hard to believe in a level of incompetence that fails to notice the existance of over half the human race.
Still, we can always stick with the obvious explanation. Sexist societies are not the default. It's what we're stuck with in Western Europe and related off-shoots, yes, that doesn't make it a default to be assumed. Deliberately choosing to have a society that makes it harder to game in a fictional universe would be fairly stupid, after all, and it's all our choice, we're making this stuff up.
Those keywords that do not specify gender: do not distinguish betwen gender. Easy. Now pick the abilities you want your character to have, same as usual. If you don't want sword&shield, don't take it. If you don't want weaving, don't take it.
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