Same here. The reason was that the weaker and less privileged (female) candidate would have more to gain from getting the job; the stronger candidate would have

Same here. The reason was that the weaker and less privileged (female) candidate would have more to gain from getting the job; the stronger candidate would have no problems getting a job elsewhere anyways. How do you argue against this? At the end of the day the job was just CRUD-glue work, so strong or weak didn't matter so much.