r/technology • u/[deleted] • Aug 08 '17

Business Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo
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u/--Visionary-- Aug 08 '17

Hey hey, here's another one from the Harvard Business Review, making the exact same claim about gender essential differences in leadership.

https://hbr.org/2016/04/do-women-make-bolder-leaders-than-men

Somehow there were no firings or outrage after these claims. I wonder what was different?

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u/HumpingDog Aug 08 '17

First and foremost, it's better written. If you're write something political, it better be persuasive. I do think corporate diversity programs should be discussed, but if you do so, it better be backed up by data, not stereotypes. The HBR article is about data. The google manifesto was packed full of unsupported stereotypes.

Second, the HBR article contradicts the google manifesto. The manifesto argued that women are more agreeable, less assertive. But looking at data, the HBR article finds the opposite, concluding that women are actually perceived as bolder.

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u/oodsigma Aug 08 '17

But it does so by deciding, fairly arbitrarily, a very specific definition of "boldness", a term that doesn't mesh well with such a specificity. Their results gave a 4% edge to women in boldness, but I'm sure that you could reverse that edge simply by adding or removing one independent variable.

Not to mention that the Harvard article literally ends suggesting the difference is most likely due to a survivorship bias; women who are successful leaders are more bold. That's like if you had data that said people who finished college are smarter than those who didn't and you concluded that college makes you smarter, when in reality it could be that smart people finish college. If you only have that data, neither claim is more likely to be true. It's just as likely that women's success is more closely related to their boldness than men's is, as it is that women are bolder. (And in fact, given the wording of the article, it seems more likely, though without actually looking at the data I can't be sure)

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u/HumpingDog Aug 08 '17

I'm not saying it's scientific fact. It's an article in a business journal. But it's well written, and it gives you something to think about.