I prefer to think that, for the most part - whether an abundance of women or men - it simply reflects a hiring policy prizing merit over anything else.

Your confession smells of knee-jerk social justice warriorism. So tell us- If you had a sick child, and that child had a near terminal illness, would you want your child to be seen by a specialist who received their medical position based on workplace gender balance, or based on the fact that they were the very best at that job regardless of their sex, colour of their skin, religion etc.? I thought so.

or we could choose candidates based on their qualifications. you know, so that today's qualified young white males might actually get jobs instead of being instantly disqualified because a few old white males already had positions. When these young guys are denied work for diversities sake you just end up creating 'alt-right' personalities...

in certain realms, such as animation or things, no talking about the life or death careers, which the above poster probably does not work in, there is an inequal balance, there are many more men in animation than women. This is an area where the more work you get and the more experience you get, the better you get. The sexism exhibited in this field is sexism, not merit, it might hide behind merit, or behind maternity leave worries or confidence levels or comfort levels, but its sexism. It's sexism in the work place. And the companies probably do get more men applying for positions but what really benefits a company that needs alot of creativity and unique minds and thoughts and experiences is to have a variety of employees in many forms including gender. It makes for a smarter company.

Sounds like some communist perfect society you're aiming towards. Too bad there's serious issues with what you're suggesting. You might even ruin lives if you force genders into roles they do not want to do for the rest of their lives.

In any environment its not that great working as a staff where the other group is constantly trying to pick you up and you are there doing a job.

because I worked at 900 (phone sex) place which, obviously, was mainly women (one guy on the psychic phone lines, and one guy for guys calling in wanting to talk to guys) and there was no "cattiness' or competitiveness or backstabbing.
It was very good $ and most of the women were either bi or gay, so maybe that had something to do with it.
Women liking other women is a good and important thing.
Look out for your sisters!
Chicks before Dicks! ;)