I suppose there are some who want that, but many just want the opportunity. Why is this so hard for you to grasp? Barring people from an activity strictly because of their gender or race is absurd. The race barrier has huge holes in it today, and the gender barrier is being torn apart as well.

Here's an example (from my example professions). Women in the police forces used to be relegated to meter maids, secretarial/administrative roles and other "safe" jobs. Promotion into positions like detective were not open, or only open for the rare ones that caught the right persons attention or had some other pull (family, political, whatever) or the one who did 10x what their male colleagues did to show they were capable. Today those barriers are gone (going away?).