Gender discrimination: Can male bosses have good mentor relationships with women subordinates?

After reading Chapter 3 in Frankie Perry's book about Rolling Meadows Community Hospital, (Perry 2002) I wanted to comment on a personal experience I recently had at my own workplace. I was promoted to supervisor after working as a staff pharmacist for three years. In my fourth year in that position, a male manager was hired to be my new boss. I had also applied for this management position, and after rigorous interviewing by a male director and male out-going manager, they offered the job to a male colleague. I accepted their decision and hoped that my new manager and I would have a mentor-type relationship. Things went very well for one year, and then he started to criticize my performance. During this time, he was also accused of sexual harassment by another female colleague, and she decided to leave the company rather than pursue her legal options. My relationship with him was never anything but professional, but I always had the feeling that he was not comfortable with me being female. After one more year of severe criticism, I resigned my position as supervisor. My manager went on to hire a male colleague in my place.
There are many more details to my story, but the bottom line is, I felt that I was being discriminated against because of my gender. There were many examples, but one that comes to mind is when I was told by my manager that it was easier for him to complete disciplinary action with two of my male direct reports "because men can talk to each other better when there aren't any women in the room". To this day, I still do not know what was discussed. I was just told that they had worked it out.
Before I resigned, I met with the Human Resource Director (a female) who completely took my manager's side. There was no support there at all. My manager handed her a completely false list of criticisms about my performance, and she asked me to sign them. I refused to sign the document, and she placed it in my personnel file. Thankfully, I was enrolled in the Human Resources class at the time and my professor advised me that I had two choices - leave the company or move back to a staff position.
My decision to stay on as a staff position has been good. I do not have any direct contact with my manager (who is now the director), but I still feel that I was coerced into resigning as supervisor. I am hopeful that there is a way for women to progress to higher levels of management with men as their bosses, but I also know that gender discrimination is a real problem that can derail a woman's career.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel for me since I am about to graduate with a MSHA degree, and I will be looking for a different position. Hopefully, I will find that mentor I have been looking for!

Reference:
Perry, F. (2002) Chapter 3, Gender discrimination: Rolling meadows
community hospital. The Tracks We Leave: Ethics in Healthcare Management. Chicago: Health Administration Press.