So were all the cabinets that weren't 50% female discriminating against women?
I have no idea, it's very well possible, and at some point especially decades ago even highly likely. I guess someone would have to do some research and try to figure that out, which seems a lot better than making assumptions.
People from different background can offer different perspectives and bring different experiences to the table. It doesn't need to be about hard skills or having token representation that you can trot out.
If that's the intention, and the people hiring actually mean it, then sure at least that makes logical sense and I can kinda get behind that. And as I've said, IF racism/discrimination is shown to be happening against certain groups at certain organizations I have no real issues with correcting that with affirmative action, because that's the whole point of AA.
The problem I have is a situation like ie: men are shown to be admitted to universities at a rate lower than women, so then they put in gender quotas to let in more men and thus by default denying admission some women who were more qualified. (It being assumed that nobody is discriminating against men in admissions and they just have worse marks). I'm sure women would be PO'd at this, as they should be, because it's fundamentally unfair and I don't agree with it.