From a physics professor at a major research university:

Two things I have noticed in science and engineering in the academy:

1) Women applicants are generally held to lower standards, not higher standards, in hiring. This is not debatable. Committees search high and wide to find female applicants. It might be different in industry, but I doubt it, at least in large corporations.

2) Women may be at a disadvantage, in that I have seen women grad students generally are less aggressive, and this affects them in two ways: A) They tend to give more low-key, less exciting talks, and public talks are crucial parts of interviews in academia; and B) they tend to back down and become silent when faced with a man who is aggressively defending his opinion. This can be interpreted by some people as lack of confidence, or lack of knowledge.