Should Graduate Students Contribute to Edited Volumes?

In Catarina Dutilh Novaes's recent post, "How to ensure gender balance in edited volumes?" one anonymous commenter suggests:

One thing that I think editors can do is to be willing to invite junior women (and even promising graduate students) to write articles for volumes that are otherwise mostly big-name senior people. This does double (triple?) duty: it helps put less pressure on established people... while helping to ensure gender balance in these volumes, and it helps women who are at an earlier career stage with things like tenure and getting jobs (and simply becoming "known" in the philosophical community). I've seen more and more volumes with a few articles in them by junior people/grad students; the least we could do is ensure that THOSE articles are written by women.

This seems right and good to me, at least as far as the volumes themselves go and as far as the profession goes.  But my question is whether submitting papers to volumes is actually good for the graduate students (or early academics) themselves.  I am not so sure that it is.

Recently, a graduate student I know was invited to contribute to a volume, and asked me if I thought it was a good idea.  I replied:

I'd say, on the "pro" side, if they are asking you, it is likely your paper would be included.  Publication is good.  I would expect that this would be a reasonably high profile place to put your paper, a place where it would get read.  That's good, too.  I think it also looks good for someone at your career stage to be invited to contribute (that's something you can indicate on your CV).  That looks good, too.

On the "con" side, sometimes peer-reviewed journal articles "count" more than articles in volumes.  Sometimes these volumes take a long time to come out.  Then again, as long as your paper is accepted for publication, it "counts."

Since I gave that reply, I have wondered whether the "con" side weighs more heavily than the "pro" side.  A number of the volumes that I have been involved with have been delayed, sometimes very delayed, for a wide variety of reasons.  Assuming such delays are common, is it good for graduate students (or young academics), who very much need to be published, to take the risk of delayed publication?  Of course, many journals are notoriously slow, too, but if one knows the reputation of various journals in this regard, one can choose wisely, whereas it's a bit more of a crap shoot with a volume.

Thoughts?