Arguing for it is extremely necessary, but that doesn't mean it isn't obvious. We have explicit directions to hire and promote more women and executive compensation tied to it. It would be surprising if women weren't favored in the hiring process.

HR would push unqualified female candidates into our hiring pool bypassing our screening processes (despite the fact that we already had vetted qualified female candidates in our pool)...we're talking people three levels too junior, or in one case someone who didn't speak English at all.

Then there would be some really nasty pressure from HR to hire those candidates.

Then late last year our engineering leadership said that they were creating a director level position exclusively for a female person of color that would be an outside hire, which I'm pretty certain is illegal. Though they still haven't done that yet.