Of course it could. If only say 4% of their workforce was women before, and this increased to 8% after stripping out gender identity, then that is a huge increase (double) the amount of women. This is because women are being hired at the rate of 10% (using your figure), which would increase the number of women dramatically over time.

I agree that if the initial starting proportion was 10% (again assuming your number is correct) then gender stripping should make no difference - just pointing out that unless you know the starting proportion then the OP's statement is perfectly valid.