tl;dr: It depends on who does the picking and the assumptions they hold. In both cases, the entity with less power (PhD, male) initiates the selection, and the

tl;dr: It depends on who does the picking and the assumptions they hold. In both cases, the entity with less power (PhD, male) initiates the selection, and the entity (company, female) with greater power says yea or nay. A way to work around the problem might be for the lesser entities to not pre-select their targets and instead set up an "open picking" a la recess kickball. It does fly in the face of the philosophy of "hiring people smarter than you", not sure if an analog in the realm of personal relationships exists.