According to Merriem-Webster, which defines "mislead" as the following:
1. (transitive verb) to lead in a wrong direction or into a mistaken action or belief often by deliberate deceit
2. (intransitive verb) to lead astray; give a wrong impression
The mental model I've always been taught is:
False, well intended -> mistake
False, bad intention -> lie
True, bad intention -> misleading
Bad intention, regardless of truth -> deceitful
The problem of classifying all bad intentioned statements as misleading is that it leaves you without a way to express "true +bad intention". While for generic bad intentioned statements regardless of truth we already have a word (deceit).
Newtonian physics is false, but it works well enough we teach it in college. But our best models of physics are currently in disagreement, so can we even say they are true? Given the replication crisis, especially in social sciences, how many of peer reviewed findings can be called true? Even experimental results can be false (consider studies that found FTL neutrinos, which were rejected as an error in the experiment, and which was eventually confirmed but it took quite a lot of work and in a softer field than physics with a claim less absurd than FTL, would have likely long been accepted as a true finding).
Even in math, basic statements aren't really true or false, but more a question of "given these axioms, can we prove or disprove it" noting that we have different systems with different axioms. If we are talking basic sets, most people are using naive set theory which is inherently contradictory, which means that notions like true or false probably can't be considered well defined.
E.g. if I say the earth is round we optimistically parse round to include oblate spheroid and rate it true.
If I say that the earth is flat we rate it as false because there is no reasonable interpretation possible other than confusion or malice.
I think that's _you_ turning the statement into something much broader than intended. The claim is about engineers and you're jumping from "men are better than women in engineering" to "men are better overall."
To give a related example, "Most good NBA players are black." I don't think anyone would bother trying to couch this in a bunch of "well, for all we know that's just a function of more NBA players being black than white" arguments, nor would anyone be lead to think "the average black man is better than the average white man" as a result of that statement. I _do_ agree however that there are some people who see rather narrowly-defined statements and turn them into something they're not...
My point is that it is possible for a reader to turn it that way, for a variety of reasons (lack of understanding of statistics, preexisting biases, or whatever). And that getting a reader to mistakenly generalize is the purpose of a misleading statement.
To mislead is to direct into a falsehood by implication even though the literally expressed facts are all true; the writer's bad intentions are necessary to qualify something as misleading I'd say, for the same reason that not all false statements are lies because to be a lie the speaker must know the statement is false and still use it. There are probably much better examples than the one I came up with on the fly, though.
Classify this claim: "Most good engineers are male."
Misleading
Classify this claim: "Most bad engineers are male."
Misleading
Classify this claim: "Most good NBA players are black."
True
Classify this claim: "Most good NHL players are white."
True