Explanation
This question mentions a phrase that appears only once in
the passage: gender is a "job-irrelevant variable" in line 15. The point of
both studies described in the first paragraph is that they are trying to show a
gender effect in cases where there should be none. That's why gender is
"job-irrelevant": men and women should be equally well qualified. With an eye
on the answer choices, we can see that we have ruled out (A) and (B) and
narrowed down to (C) through (E). Moreover, the passage is clear that in the
study, women were favored. This is presented in the passage not as a completely
unassailable truth, but nevertheless as a piece of evidence, and there's no
other evidence on the matter.
Therefore, the correct answer is (D).
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