Google Fires Author Of Memo On Women In Tech

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — An internal memo that criticized Google for ideological insularity, an excessive commitment to gender equity and diversity, and ignorance of biological differences between the sexes leaked to the media over the weekend and continues to fuel a firestorm of accusations and counter-accusations of discrimination and unfairness. On Monday, Google executives fired the author of the memo, James Damore, for "advancing harmful gender stereotypes."

The memo, published by Gizmodo, was a 10-page critique of the company's "political correctness" and diversity initiatives, which Damore says result in discrimination against men. While he acknowledged that women face unfair discrimination in the tech sector — a hot-button issue that has publicly dogged the industry for years — he said that biological differences between men and women are significant and may explain some of the gender gaps in the company.(For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

In response, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Monday that parts of the memo "violate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace." Later that day, it was announced that Damore was fired.

Watch: Google Engineer Blasts Its Workforce Diversity Policies

Damore told Bloomberg he is “currently exploring all possible legal remedies” in response to his termination.

Google is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor for large gender disparities in its employees' salaries.

In a statement, Damore said his memo has been misrepresented.

"I value diversity and inclusion, am not denying that sexism exists, and don’t endorse using stereotypes," he said. "When addressing the gap in representation in the population, we need to look at population level differences in distributions. If we can’t have an honest discussion about this, then we can never truly solve the problem."

He continued: "Despite what the public response seems to have been, I’ve gotten many personal messages from fellow Googlers expressing their gratitude for bringing up these very important issues which they agree with but would never have the courage to say or defend because of our shaming culture and the possibility of being fired. This needs to change."

Danielle Brown, Google's vice president of diversity, integrity and governance, sent the following statement to the company's employees in response to Damore's original memo.

"Many of you have read an internal document shared by someone in our engineering organization, expressing views on the natural abilities and characteristics of different genders, as well as whether one can speak freely of these things at Google," she said. "And like many of you, I found that it advanced incorrect assumptions about gender."

She added: "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."

Rob Toole, a partner at the Kona HR Consulting Group, said Damore should not be surprised that the memo resulted in his termination.

"You can say whatever you want; the problem is when you say something and you put your company’s name on it," Toole told Patch. "Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s got 'Google' on the letterhead."

While Damore's memo started out as an internal document, he had no reason to think it would stay confidential, Toole said. Given the pressure the tech industry — which is about 80 percent male — is under to diversify, it would have been easy to predict that a controversial document could become public and reflect back on the company.

And if Damore really had a problem with Google's policies, Toole said, he could have gone through the proper channels to address the issue.

"He should have gone to [Human Resources]," Toole said. "Hopefully, they would have pointed that he had some logic flaws and said 'Go back to being an engineer.'"

"I wonder whether, if the [Damore] discussed his views with a group of women before putting pen to paper, the final product would have been different," Lori Rassas, human resources consultant and author of "The Perpetual Paycheck," said to Patch in an email. "A discussion about diversity can quickly become emotionally charged, and the memo was overflowing with stereotypes, unhelpful rhetoric and inaccurate generalizations that, unfortunately, actually overshadowed a number of insightful observations."

"For example," she said, "certain hiring practices might lower the bar for diversity candidates, and I have seen this to be true."

She continued: "The purpose of diversity initiatives should not be hire a diversity candidate regardless of their qualifications, but rather the idea is to hire a diverse candidate over a nondiverse candidate if all else is equal."

Read the full memos at Gizmodo>>

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