The most important statement of all the reports: "The lab has said that despite efforts to close its own gender gap, women still account for less than 20 percent of staff."

If CERN, one of the largest,most prestigious scientific organizations on the planet, with connection and support with thousands of universities and science base groups, essentially millions of people, cannot move beyond 20 percent begs the question:

Is the hypothesis "Gender parity is good for all at any cost" tenable? In any context?

Is the idea that gender parity is, in any way, good, and provides society with any reasonable progress, goodness.supportable with any scientific research?

I say: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The narratives of pay gap, and discrimination, are all old and unsubstantiated myths.

He sounds to me like a man with a grudge perhaps after being personally passed over when a woman was chosen and sounds similar to the way Christians scream persecution when somebody threatens their predominance and perceived right to discriminate.

"Physics invented and built by men, it's not by invitation," one slide says.

Physics is built on experience, conjecture, experimentation, and conclusion, it is not built on gender. The invitation required is the intelligence and the intensity needed to understand it.

His speech was offensive and incorrect. Just the day after a Canadian woman was granted the Nobel prize for science.
[washingtonpost.com]
What you fail to understand is that for women of my generation and older, we were actively discouraged from entering sciences. It was consider 'too taxing' for women's brains. I remember distinctly being advised against becoming an archelogist and taking up nursing as a more suitable profession for girls. Things are changing and so they should. In cases were an uneven hand is given to one gender over another or one race over an other, it is only proper that steps are taken to redress this balance. Women have ALWAYS been involved in science, from Ada Lovelace to Rosalind Franklin and beyond. Its just they were often excluded from recognition. I have 2 BScs and an MSc and my doctorate will be science based (ask for details if interested). It is still unusual though. Rather than bashing the universities stand on this issue, why not encourage the young women you know to consider careers in science??