And - by the way, I want to be clear that I'm not anti-male.

The people I believe who engineered the HR salary review at that firm were probably all male.   They were probably embedded government employees (CSIS, perhaps?) who could see what was going on, see who was being shafted and decided to pull levers.

It doesn't change the fact that the executive team at the company (including a female HR director who was brutally murdered a few years later) were favouring the male employees over the female when it came to salary, bonus etc. etc.

All true.  No alternative facts.