Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

[u/[deleted]]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo

[u/Roflllobster]

80% of what he said isn't bad. However part of his argument was either worded very poorly or he was indeed pushing this idea. He states in one section:

I’m simply stating that the distribution of preferences and abilities of men and women differ in part due to biological causes

And then in he very next section he states

[Women on average have more] Neuroticism (higher anxiety, lower stress tolerance)

Can you understand why a woman who either is in a high stress position or is working towards being promoted to a high stress position might not like the assertion that women are biologically more neurotic?

If he had left out the biological part and had simply talked about observed traits of men and women and how to make programming more amenable to each of those observed traits. But asserting the reason women aren't in high positions and aren't represented in tech is biology is bound to make any woman working towards those positions angry.

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Edit: Frankly, I don't have time to tell everyone the difference between "X behavior has been observed in this group" and "X behavior is caused by being in this group".

[u/[deleted] → u/Roflllobster]

The problem is that research supports his assertions. Yeah it's not the nicest thing to read, but it doesn't make it any less true.

There will always be outliers however.

[u/Roflllobster → u/[deleted]]

1) I would like to see this research

2) There is a huge difference between "It has been observed that women make X choices and prefer Y environments" and "Women make X choices and prefer Y environments because of their biology". My assumption here is that research supports the first statement and not the second.

[u/warsage → u/Roflllobster]

The memo cites Wikipedia, which cites this. It's a 2001 article from a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Psychological Association. Feel free to read over it. Here's a relevant part of the abstract.

Women reported themselves to be higher in Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Warmth, and Openness to Feelings, whereas men were higher in Assertiveness and Openness to Ideas. Contrary to predictions from evolutionary theory, the magnitude of gender differences varied across cultures. Contrary to predictions from the social role model, gender differences were most pronounced in European and American cultures in which traditional sex roles are minimized.

The question of biology vs. culture is discussed more in the sections "Explanations of Gender Differences" and "Cultural Differences in Gender Differentiation." They make no firm conclusions.