James Damore, author of the Google Memo
Is the tech industry still a boys' club? A Google software engineer penned a controversial memo, suggesting that the gender pay gap stemmed from "biological causes" between men and women. He was subsequently fired."I strongly believe in gender and racial diversity, and I think we should strive for more," the Google employee
wrote. "Women on average show a higher interest in people and men in things. ... Women on average are more cooperative. ... Women on average look for more work-life balance while men have a higher drive for status on average," he continued.
"The male gender role is currently inflexible. Feminism has made great progress in freeing women from the female gender role, but men are still very much tied to the male gender role. If we, as a society, allow men to be more 'feminine,' then the gender gap will shrink, although probably because men will leave tech and leadership for traditionally feminine roles," he wrote. These are all quotes from James Damore, the Harvard-educated employee who worked as a Google engineer until being fired for daring to suggest Google needs more diversity but should rethink how to foster that diversity.
According to the tech site Gizmodo, Damore wrote an "anti-diversity screed." Re/Code referred to it as "sexist." The tech site Mashable assailed anyone who defended Damore as being part of the "alt-right."
The problem, chiefly, is that many critics claimed Damore said things he did not and painted the things he did say in the worst possible light.
Comment: See: Jordan Petersen interviews James Damore, author of "controversial" Google diversity