That's the issue though - for decades there was discrimination for female applicants to 'redress the male/female imbalance'. It's still being done at a lot of places. But suddenly now that the scale has tipped in the opposite direction, the same mechanism triggers an inquiry?

Exactly. Most of the top ranked liberal arts college have gender parity. For example, my school, Amherst College, has a 50% male to female ratio. Likewise, Williams is 48% to 50%, Swarthmore is 47% to 53%, and Pomona is equal. This is also true for Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Since each school is competing for the same 10% of high school students and has an acceptance rate of 10% it’s probable that males have an advantage. However, affirmative action contributes a fair amount to the overall success of these schools and their graduates. I suspect, and I hope, applicants agree.

It’s also worth mentioning that this has become more of a problem because of the Seven Sisters. Harvard’s acquiring of Radcliffe and Vassar becoming coeducational placed greater pressure on similarly ranked schools. Moreover, Amherst and Williams’ becoming coeducational might’ve contributed to this imbalance.