What a steaming pile of horse manure. With regard to being "selected on merit", I think you guys fail to understand the reality. It's more like, having screened from the initial several thousand applicants, they have culled probably 90% and ended up with several hundred who they consider to be the most meritorious and likely to succeed. They have a couple dozen positions to fill. At that stage, they might as well pick names out of a hat. If they decide to address what they perceive to be a gender imbalance in their workforce, that is entirely their prerogative.
This is one of the most brutal unfair industries in the world where timing is everything, nobody owes you a damn thing, and years of work can be undone in the blink of an eye if some @sshole examiner decides he doesn't like you on the day. There's bloody nothing you can do about it except be the best you can be, yourself.
You won't last very long if you're the kind of person who frets because you feel that someone else got an easier ride.