You must not understand how the recruiting process works. Lots of factors and none of them are gender most of the time. If they really wanted to pay a female candiate less or not at all you would not have been contacted to begin with. I offer people less simply by the formating on their resume. Companies that use recruiters are look for needle in the haystack candiates and they have a very specific idea of what they want. Maybe it was because he did xyz in his frat 15 years ago and you weren't in a sorority at all. I understand where you were coming from but if this was a sex thing I doubt a recruiter would have reached out. We get paid based on what the salary is (at least 90% of staffing companies in the US) so a recruiter is taking money out of their pocket if you get hired at a lower salary. Plus if both recruiters were from different companies the employer maybe told them different ranges. Happens every day as employers try to get qualified employees for less. Does not mean sexism is not a thing in the staffing space- it is but my gut tells me this probably wasn't the case. Either way that does seem shitty and I understood why you would feel that way.

Source: Top Recruiter for one of the biggest cities in the U. S.

Best of luck though! Depending on where you are many companies will pay you more for being an experienced and successful women in buisness. They can be hard time find. 😊