Can you please explain this whole American "affirmative action" and "special hiring practices" thing? As I understand it, when given two candidates with equal interview results, the company will choose the female instead of the male one. Am I getting it wrong?
You weren't particularly discriminated against due to your gender but rather fell a victim of both incompetence and immaturity.
Whether actual gender discrimination is also incompetence and/or immaturity is up to discussion. But it seems to still be acceptable in some places in the US. I hope Western Europe is doing better, but I don't know.
Original piece was about science, and it does not pay anywhere near as well as tech does. And plenty of jobs provide comfortable lifestyle, the IT is fashionable because it is all the hype now.
> I didn't see women fighting to get into those physically demanding jobs
I don't see hordes of men striving to be lumberjacks or miners either. For some reason most men want to sit in the comfortable office or a research lab too.
Although I agree with you about "life isn't fair and probably never will be" part, gatekeeping women from entering professions and not offering them equal opportunities (should be italicized) is not the unfairness we should keep. It is a degenerate mindset that must be eradicated.
But yeah, expecting equality of outcome is foolish and quotas are probably not a good idea.