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A debate over a memo forwarded internally by a Google employee has triggered a debate over the perception of women as engineers and freedom of speech in the organisation. The employees have taken sides, few of them agreeing to the allegation that women are not good coders like men are, whereas others have rejected this view.
The 3000-word memo forced Danielle Brown, the new VP of diversity, integrity and governance at the company address the debate separately. It also forced the company to fire the employee accusing him of crossing the line and violating the code of conduct.
How it started
A Google employee sent a memo titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber” with a subtitle, “How bias clouds our thinking about diversity and inclusion.”
The memo starts with “I value diversity and inclusion, am not denying that sexism exists, and don’t endorse using stereotypes” but soon starts complaining the suppression of freedom of expression and “discriminat[ion] to correct…oppression”.
Talking about programmes which promote diversity within the organisation, the memo criticises “discrimination to reach equal representation” as “unfair, divisive, and bad for business.”
The author of the memo then goes on to describe his opinion on traits of men and women and puts forward arguments why more men are at the top of the corporate ladder and why women are not good at tech and leadership roles.
The debate ensues
The memo went viral internally over the weekend and now externally as well. Some people are criticising it and others are supporting the arguments in the memo.
Few of the highly positioned members of the organisation have responded to the memo and the debate.
The manager of the employee in question, Ari Balogh wrote, “Questioning our assumptions and sharing different perspectives is an important part of our culture…but, in the process of doing that, we cannot allow stereotyping and harmful assumptions to play any part.”
The new VP also wrote addressing the employees, “Diversity and inclusion are a fundamental part of our values and the culture we continue to cultivate. We are unequivocal in our belief that diversity and inclusion are critical to our success as a company, and we'll continue to stand for that and be committed to it for the long haul.”
Employee fired
Google fired the software engineer who wrote the memo on Monday, according to a report in The New York Times. CEO Sundar Pichai in a mail addressed to the employees said that the author of the memo had violated company's code of conduct. He further stated that the employee crossed the line “by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace.”
You can read the full memo and the responses quoted above here.
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