Just one hypothesis on this data, but that would help explain why those women who are hired then get promoted faster - because they are actually outperforming their peers.
Edit: Found it, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10483751
e.g. the other explanation could be that women applicants are just better than men, and that they aren't discriminated against.
In order to even survive, the average woman has to be at the very top of their game, or else theyd be gone because it isn't worth it to put up with all the BS that they have to.
That doesn't seem to be the standard though.
I do see one issue though: women are far more likely to be sick (at least around here statistics are quite clear IIRC).
That's only the case for younger workers. For older workers, men are more likely to be sick, according to insurance statistics.
I'll accept it for now but I guess I'll have to look that up before I feel confident to tell that as fact.
Edit: why was parent downvoted?
True, over 40% of women leave SET (science, engineering, technology, math) mid-career (https://www.ncwit.org/sites/default/files/resources/womenint... page 9).
Interestingly, in engineering 39% leave mid-career, and in technology occupations 56%.
How does that compare to other fields?
Simply put, few women work in technical IT, but end up in management, business analysis, etc. And management has a faster and higher career path to elevated positions, while techs will top out at "senior engineer/developer" after about 5 years, and will be still stuck there after 20 unless they basically give up their passion and become a manager.
Of course, there are far fewer management positions than tech roles, as the are far fewer women working in tech generally.