It's actually in the name. You are a resource for a purchasing department. I can't understand how people come to assume HR is on their side: it's not a union.
Yeah I (wrongly) figured that HR would do scans of salaries based on gender, race, disability etc to make sure there were no statistically significant differences that could lead to ammo in a lawsuit situation.
I'd expect that PR or Legal or Compliance would know more about this if they routinely search things they anticipate having to defend against.
BTW all of what you described is not unique to women. I have at least few friends that don't negotiate, don't seek alternative offers and because of that are disadvantaged when it comes to earnings. Periodic pay rise is just a device to dissuade employees from seeking their market value and appropriate compensation. The main reason for its existence is to profit from what happened to you.
