Equality would be “young women earn the same as young men”.

Unless you are banking on some cities favoring women while others favor men long term.

Equal opportunity (not equal outcome) is good. What I'm worried about is that this correlates with the wider societal trend of positive discrimination in favor of women (hence discrimination against men) and dismissal of men and their issues.

If men graduating from college at a higher rate than women, or men earning more than women, is indicative of lack of equality, then wouldn't the opposite hold true - women graduating from college at a higher rate than men, or women earning more than men is indicative of lack of equality?

But it specifically isn't equality, even though there is a narrative that it is. A similar issue is present with kids where boys, who already tend to struggle at school more than girls, aren't encouraged as much and end up not trying as much as the girls do. You can see this in the gender discrepancy of college graduation rates