The article doesn't open with "girl empowerment", it is contrasting two recent (at the time) events involving females and males to segue into the general spirit

The article doesn't open with "girl empowerment", it is contrasting two recent (at the time) events involving females and males to segue into the general spirit of how the author thinks males and females were perceived in society as of 2000, which is when the article was written. Therefore, interpreting it as zero sum is simplistic and probably incorrect.