I'm surprised to see anyone put forward such an argument, it doesn't hold up under even the lightest scrutiny. The whole reason the problems of gender, age, an

I'm surprised to see anyone put forward such an argument, it doesn't hold up under even the lightest scrutiny. The whole reason the problems of gender, age, and race discrimination are hard to tackle today are because they exist as widespread cultural biases, not as official corporate policies. Any company attempting to implement a sort of "reverse bias" as an official policy immediately opens themselves to legal action and a PR nightmare (because it's exploitative). Few companies are that stupid, which is why it doesn't happen. Legally, companies can choose to be better at hiring and to try to keep their biases in check using training, policies, corporate culture, etc. This can be effective but because it also goes hand in hand with paying everyone equitably the major advantage is pulling from a larger talent pool. And make no mistake, tons of companies do just this and are successful at it. It is a significant competitive advantage. However, there's also no strong feedback mechanism that causes a company who can "beat the market" by doing things better to somehow change centuries of ingrained socio-cultural biases. That's just not how it works. Moreover, the idea that businesses are somehow universally run by god-kings who act purely rationally is sheer fantasy that has zero relationship to reality. Business managers and owners are just human beings. They are flawed and they work against their own self-interest just as much as anyone else does. They are driven by their own desires (ego, power, status, etc.) as much as they are by a sense of trying to maximize their RoI.