Gender-based affirmative action?

Before I start, I'd like to first say that this is just a mere opinion of mine and I'm 100% open to ideas, responses, and answers to what I have to say. Also, I am by no means "anti-feminist" as I do respect and support womens' rights and equality even if this comes out in the wrong way.

Anyways, recently I've read a lot of affirmative action kinds of posts/comments, where people tend to constantly ask "any hooks?", "URM?", etc. Now I completely understand how being an URM or legacy can improve your chances at certain colleges, but this purely due to the fact that URM don't have access to the same opportunities and luxuries. Also, it doesn't always mean "garaunteed admittance".

However, I'm wondering why this applies to one's sex. Yes, women are historically oppressed and have been deprived of education, but we are living in 2018. Moreover, the United States is probably one of the most gender-equal countries in the world.

Here are some stats I read today: Women have outnumbered men in colleges since 1979 Caltech: 16 percent admission rate for women, 6 percent for men, a 10-point gap. MIT: 13 percent for women, 6 percent for men, a 7-point gap. Carnegie Mellon: 28 percent for women, 22 percent for men, a 6-point gap. Cornell: 16 percent for women, 12 percent for men, a 4-point gap.

*I know I only included top schools but I'm trying to prove that the top STEM schools favor women.

From pure observation, Caltech, MIT, CMU, and Cornell are some of the top engineering/STEM colleges in the nation, and coincidentally (not to sound arrogant) women have higher acceptance rates. Yes, the women group may be more self-selecting but how can colleges say they admitted students without ANY gender/race discrimination?

From MITs point of view, I can completely understand that having an equal male to female ratio is healthy, for I personally wouldn't want to attend a male dominated school. But in my personal opinion, I feel like the average boy has the same opportunities as the average girl living in the US, and I don't get why there are so many "girls-only STEM programs" when they already comprise nearly if not more of top STEM colleges.

Another instance of this happened in my local city, where a very top/selective high schools chooses ~10 girls and boys per district. This year, only 12 girls are applying and 34 boys are applying, but the quota is still there. How is this fair?? or how is this equal for both gender??

I know I am going to receive a lot of backlash for this post, but I really want to hear the other side, especially from those who strongly disagree with my opinion. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding something, but I hope I can learn from this great subreddit. Thanks.