You're making the standard arguments in favor of affirmative action. Those are reasonable arguments. But the counter-arguments are valid, as well:
1. You are suggesting applying explicit, intentional action: "self-correction" as you said. This is meant to counter presumed implicit, unintentional action. The big difference is that the former is noticeable and measurable, while the latter is inferred indirectly. As a result, it is hard to know how much correction to apply. Over-correction has the obvious dangers and downsides.
2. Aside from having the right amount of correction, the intentional action will, by itself, strengthen the problem in that it makes us take gender into the hiring process more strongly. When what we want is to reduce the effect of gender. (Compare this, to, say, the screens that solved the gender problem in orchestras - they had no such risk or downside.) Now, you might argue that we need to make things worse in the short term for a long-term gain, and that's reasonable, but highly debatable.
3. As other posters mentioned, explicit action also has direct effects: women will know that they were preferred based on their gender. Yes, this is meant to counter implicit, unconscious bias, but you never know when the former exists, while the latter is right in front of you, so you can't ignore it. This can increase the existing self-confidence problem that many studies point to.
There is no way to measure (or even define?) "benefiting the field".
For example, women leave the workforce earlier and more often. So we now get less work years per education year in these fields. Benefit? Not from the POV of the person paying for all this education and these services.
1. You are suggesting applying explicit, intentional action: "self-correction" as you said. This is meant to counter presumed implicit, unintentional action. The big difference is that the former is noticeable and measurable, while the latter is inferred indirectly. As a result, it is hard to know how much correction to apply. Over-correction has the obvious dangers and downsides.
2. Aside from having the right amount of correction, the intentional action will, by itself, strengthen the problem in that it makes us take gender into the hiring process more strongly. When what we want is to reduce the effect of gender. (Compare this, to, say, the screens that solved the gender problem in orchestras - they had no such risk or downside.) Now, you might argue that we need to make things worse in the short term for a long-term gain, and that's reasonable, but highly debatable.
3. As other posters mentioned, explicit action also has direct effects: women will know that they were preferred based on their gender. Yes, this is meant to counter implicit, unconscious bias, but you never know when the former exists, while the latter is right in front of you, so you can't ignore it. This can increase the existing self-confidence problem that many studies point to.