<p>This article examines why gender bias persists in human resource (HR) practices even after the extensive implementation of formal gender equality policies in organizations. The article tries to create a dynamic theoretical model explaining why policy intent and actual outcomes in gender equity remain wide apart. The article takes a conceptual and theoretical methodology and advances a synthesis from the fields of gendered organization theory, policy implementation theory, and intersectionality. Using interdisciplinary synthesis of earlier studies and empirical case illustrations, the article develops a multi-level model to understand the interaction between organizational culture, structural inequalities, and policy processes and their impact on HR outcomes. The article concludes that gender bias persists not because formal policies are absent but because they are implemented symbolically, culturally resisted, and structurally inert. Organizational cultures constantly reinterpret and sidestep equality policies through unarticulated assumptions, discretionary judgments, and performative adherence. Further, AI-based HR technologies are at the risk of expanding extant disparities when designed in the absence of ethical considerations. An intersectional analysis shows that the effect of these processes is not singular and involves additive dimensions of exclusion for marginalized women. The article makes a new contribution through the construction of a comprehensive and integrated model that transcends sequential and policy-based perceptions of HR change. The article conveys the recursive and system-like quality of the gendered inequity in HR practices, and the necessity for intersectional, culturally sensitive, and structurally embedded approaches is highlighted. The model is a theoretical development as well as a diagnostic instrument for practitioners attempting to close the distance between equality promises and organizational living practices.</p>