My thoughts exactly. I aspire to officiating D1 college athletics as a part-time job, and they basically have a quota, mostly for race, not gender though. Officials are predominately white, but a sizable percentage (at least far out of proportion) are of other races, at such a ratio that good officials are left out for subpar ones of other ethnicities.
I hope that didn't sound racist, I'm just stating what I've been taught in classes, it just happened to be about white people, which was in no way the point so please don't take it as such
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Watch college football, there are many referees of other races than the majority (I haven't come across any bad college female refs, so I won't include that) who have such poor verbal skills or signals that it's painful to watch them. If you look at an official like Ron Cherry (ACC football ref), his signals are so overstated that it is obvious he's trying to draw attention to himself (the #1 no-no in officiating) and half the stadium can't understand what in God's name he's saying.
The game on ESPN tonight was horrible. The man's clothes didn't fit (#2 rule of officiating is to "look as official as you are." If you look like a joke, coaches will treat you like one, and you have a longgg day ahead) and his hat was two sizes too big. He also gave a 15-yard unsportsmanlike for flexing. I understand you're fresh out of D2 ball, but watch some film before you go embarrass yourself in front of knowledgeable (for the most part) fans.
/rant.
Sorry, officiating just runs in my family, so it comes naturally to me. It angers me to no end to see mediocre officials get out of position or do something else stupid that causes all of us to look badly.
I say that every year like but we're going to do it this year! 
