Comment by AnthonyMouse

There are also facts and observations to support the contrary hypothesis. Statistically significant hormonal and behavioral differences between men and women have long been well-established. It should also be intuitively obvious that cultural differences can affect the choices people make (that's what cultural differences are), but studies have shown the same thing there as well.

Which leaves the question of which is the dominant effect. But for that anecdotes are useless, because "I've seen this happen myself" doesn't tell you if it explains 5% of the difference or 95% and people have a tendency of jumping to conclusions without having all the information. If Alice made bigger sales to fewer customers and Bob made smaller sales to more customers and Alice is white and Bob is black, then if Alice gets the promotion the boss is a racist because Bob made more sales but if Bob gets the promotion the boss is a sexist because Alice made bigger sales. Or so you would think by only listening to the one complaining about not getting the promotion.

So then you'd want someone to do a study and we're back to anyone publishing a study that challenges the prevailing dogma getting punished for it.