It is a common saying around SoC that it is way easier for girls to get internships at FAANG. For example, for 2022 Google Internship there is like around 70% girls?
Some may say its unfair but I opine that there is a very clear business reasoning behind this.
I would argue that at least for the entry position, an incompetent female is way more valuable than a regular competent male (not so pro, but good enough).
I would argue that for the value that female provides for the company in terms of PR, diversity numbers and marketing is way more than whatever another the other male candidate can provide technically.
Consider this. You are Google and its 2021, money is essentially free.
Woke culture is at an all time high. Investors and the media demands an equal representation of gender. So what do you do? You go to the nearby college campus and start mass hiring females. Who cares if they are incompetent? Most entry level graduates barely do work anyways. You maybe spend couple of millions a month (which is chump change) and you make your diversity numbers look nice and pretty. Investors are happy and the media call you a champion for diversity and an industry standard. Suppose, instead you hire a few more male engineers who may be competent. What are you gonna make them do?
What extra use do they bring to your company that your existing workforce (which are already chilling) is unable to do? Worse still, your numbers are now even worse and the people starts flaming you. In essence, you brought negative value to your company!
Once you follow this line of reasoning, it becomes quite clear. Now it is 2022, Papa Powell has turned off the money printer. The bloat has to be cut and as a result you do see that a lot of these females being laid off. So perhaps moving forward, we would possibly see a shift.
In fact, now HFTs are the new hot thing and they seem to actually value talent. So maybe there would be brighter days ahead.