what are they doing to broaden the applicant pool?
And why you want them to do so? I personally want that YC or any other program select applicants based on their skills and abilities and not any other criteria.
I think broadening the applicant pool here means getting more underrepresented types applying rather than changing how you select them after they've applied. Just because you get additional, different people to apply does not mean you have to relax your admissions criteria; if anything, it's the opposite: you have more to choose from.
If this is not what was meant by that phrase, then it's what should have been meant and I stand by my point anyhow.
I think everyone wants YC to pick the best candidates (thus making the best startups who make the best products for us to use), but I also want them to not systematically overlook qualified candidates due to external factors. If there's a way to tweak early-childhood education to turn more women into potential startup founders, hackers, etc., that increases the number of startups and hackers available for startups, which is awesome.
It would be reasonable for YC to use successful women/minority applicants (Jessica Mah; Leah Culver; I'm sure there are others, plus of course Jessica Livingston's role as a partner) to demonstrate that women can be successful in startups. Other than that, it's really something for parents, K12 educators, etc. to address.
Women do seem to be a lot better represented in bio/biotech than in computers/ee, so if over time more startups happen in the bio space, that should help to address the imbalance too.
If this is not what was meant by that phrase, then it's what should have been meant and I stand by my point anyhow.