>The market is more than willing to put up with a gross inefficiency if it reinforces the dominant narrative and market participants have shown themselves ready

>The market is more than willing to put up with a gross inefficiency if it reinforces the dominant narrative and market participants have shown themselves ready to collectively make less if it means that members of disfavored groups make much, much less. I read your post as pinning it on the selling-side, but I'm not sure thats true; it seems more reasonable to me that the market would naturally stamp out discrimination on the seller-side unless its being enforced by consumers; ie if the population in general distrusts women leading a firm, and thus gives them less business as a result, then their market value is actually lower, because they can't fairly compete. So the market is being efficient given the nature of the environment. It might be better off in a different environment.