Hadean interview questions

Had several friendly chats with HR, but it felt like they weren’t serious about progressing my application. Lots of vague “we’ll let you know” responses. Eventually gave up — never heard back.

I was asked to interview for a role. In the conversation the role was very different from the advert but it still seemed somewhat interesting. He then asked for salary expectations and I asked if there was an approved salary band. He said no but his gut feeling was X-X. I said they are in line with what I was looking for but am flexible at the moment. He said he’d get back by the end of the week with an update. Almost a week and a half after he said he’d get back he emailed saying they wouldn’t move forward with my application because they couldn’t meet salary expectations. I replied with my confusion based on our conversation and never heard back. This was a very unfortunate equity issue. As a female I am statistically less likely to negotiate and ask for higher compensation. I will be even more hesitant to ask for what I feel is an honest market value due to situations like this.