Thank you for posting this. I'd just like to also add that the "best possible candidate regardless of gender" clause does not run orthogonal to having ratio tar

Thank you for posting this. I'd just like to also add that the "best possible candidate regardless of gender" clause does not run orthogonal to having ratio targets. Firstly, they act to overcome the biases mentioned in the OP. Secondly, rarely do employees operate in a vacuum, and the benefits brought to teamwork by having mixed genders is important and valuable. The office I work in is infinitely richer for having moved towards having more equal (albeit still terribly inequal) gender balance by recruiting female Engineers. This shines through in group work where a diverse range of perspectives is important at achieving a robust outcome, e.g.: risk assessments, etc.