In the hypothetical example, yes the assumption is that they have equivalent skills. My issue is that in real life you can never assume that two candidates hav

In the hypothetical example, yes the assumption is that they have equivalent skills. My issue is that in real life you can never assume that two candidates have equal skills (in fact, the odds that they do are negligible); instead you have to make assumptions about the probability of increased skill given various priors. Given standard priors based on my own experience, I'd be more likely to hire the woman in that example. If I actually did know that they were exactly identical skill-wise, it'd be a different story.