Do companies have a gender preference for office admins?

I believe yes, but not because they are more capable to do the job, but because they are more willing to pay less salary for them.
I believe it is part of workforce discrimination.
Gender has nothing to do about the efficiency of doing the job.

I agree with Ms.
Samar Abu Shaban .
Gender has got nothing to do with doing a job.
The blue chip companies infact state clearly in their job specification about no gender preference and that they are EEO employer.
But unfortunately its a practice here in Pakistan as well.

yes depends on the marketing portfolio (is the company more in upmarket area or more down market area, clientelle and also the main focus of the company) and company portfolio it will be better to have a lady at admin for instance at car sales than having an guy of about50 years doing admin duties.
I think that it depends on the type of company and the marketing portfolio

Yes

it all depends upon company to company.
for eg and moreover they would generally prefer females compared to males.
so in the admin area the representative is the brand ambassodar for the company

Yes but depend on JOB

yes

yes because the real image of the company is shown by the office admins.
Any body who comes or talks to the admins first.
They will show the image of the company to that person.
and when it matters the image of the company then it must have gender preference for the post of office admins.

Unfortunately, the answer is yes.
A number of companies prefer a specific gender for a number of roles which is completely wrong.
Ideally, all hiring should be done irrespective of the gender, cast, creed, religion, etc.
In some parts of the work, a law suit can be filed against a company that discriminates.
(example: EEO in the US).

office admins usually preferred to be females, unless if there work requires a lot of outings.
the reason is that females has more ability to work with files, the are arranging it as if the are arranging their homes.
also the have better lingual skills than men.
and many other differences proofed by science in this subject.