You may expect that about firefighters, but people with the same definition of progress as you see that as a problem to be solved by lowering the bar. I think

You may expect that about firefighters, but people with the same definition of progress as you see that as a problem to be solved by lowering the bar. I think you're also drawing a rather arbitrary line here, based on assuming the differences between young/old/male/female are purely physical. But that's clearly not the case. If you're looking for a salesperson for your motorbike store, you'll probably have more luck fishing amongst men than women and that's not discrimination unless your job ad literally says "no women allowed". That said, I do agree programming is not a job where there's any obvious way or reason to do such targeting. But presumably these companies had reasons for making those choices. Why don't we hear their side of the story?