Google has been criticized by its diversity and inclusion initiatives. One of Google’s employees wrote a memo that went viral saying that the company has fewer female engineers because they are more neurotic and that they tolerate stress less than men do.

The new Google’s diversity and inclusion chief, Danielle Brown, rejected that memo by sending a letter to all employees on Saturday. She said that the employee’s note had incorrect assumptions about gender and it is not what the company believes.

Google smartphone
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“Like many of you, I found that (the document) advanced incorrect assumptions about gender,” she said in the letter. “I’m not going to link to it here as it’s not a viewpoint that I or this company endorses, promotes or encourages.”

 “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber”

The employee’s 10-page memo was titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber.” In it, the employee says that Google’s diversity policy is discriminatory. That person also alleges some biological differences between men and women. It is because to these biological and genetic differences that women don’t have that much participation in the engineering area since they have other preferences and abilities. Therefore, it is ok if they don’t have significant positions in such area. The memo states that men are better suited to be engineers than women are. He thinks that the gender gap doesn’t imply sexism.

“Women, on average, have more neuroticism (higher anxiety, lower stress tolerance). This may contribute to the higher levels of anxiety women report on Googlegeist and to the lower number of women in high-stress jobs,” States the memo.

The employee is believed to be a male engineer,; however, its identity is not clear. The engineer also reflects in the memo the fears and thoughts of many other men in the industry. In fact, some other men from the company have supported what is stated in the memo. Some critics have said that the men’s words do reflect the hostile and unwelcoming policy of the tech company.

Google needs to stop alienating conservatives

The employee also said that Google group-think has done harm and that the company is alienating conservatives. He also claims that Google has an unconscious-bias training. The author says it hasn’t embraced the violent leftists’ protests; but the company is always shaming in TGIF, which is a weekly companywide meeting. The writer asks Google to amplify its ideological diversity instead of worrying about the gender and racial equality because by doing it, it has silenced ideological differences.

“Part of building an open, inclusive environment means fostering a culture in which those with alternative views, including different political views, feel safe sharing their opinions,” Brown wrote. “But that discourse needs to work alongside the principles of equal employment found in our Code of Conduct, policies, and anti-discrimination laws.”

Google is proud, and it publically highlights that it hires minorities and women to diversify the company’s workforce. However, most of it continues to be integrated by white men.

Google brags about its workforce's diversity, despite it still being predominantly male. Image Credit: The Verge
Google brags about its workforce’s diversity, despite it still being predominantly male. Image Credit: The Verge

69 percent of Google’s workforce is male

The Department of Labor accused Google of routinely paying women less as well. Therefore, it must facilitate detailed data about its employees. Google is trying to avoid this.

On this matter, the writer of the memo said that women spend more money than men but that they are paid pretty much the same.

Google's workforce chart divided by gender as of May 2014. Image Credit: Google
Google’s workforce chart divided by gender as of May 2014. Image Credit: Google

Google’s last diversity report shows that 69 percent of the workforce is integrated by males, while 31 percent of it are women. In the tech and leadership positions of Google, women are even less represented, since in those areas men represent the 80 and 75 percent of the personnel, respectively. When it comes to racial disparity, the stats are worse since only one member of the staff is black, and these stats haven’t changed since 2014.

The writer of the memo doesn’t understand engineering

Yonatan Zunger, an engineer who worked at Google, sent a message to the author of the note, saying that he doesn’t understand engineering. Zunger said that engineering is about cooperation, empathy, and collaboration with all the colleagues. Therefore, he believes that all the things the writer labeled as “female”  are essential traits an engineer needs to be successful. He said that the person who wrote the manifesto is completely stupid because according to him, a large fraction of his colleagues is biologically not good enough for their jobs and that they are only there because of the gender policies.

At least, in theory, Google has made significant efforts to increase the diversity of its personnel and to reduce gender inequality when it comes to leading positions and wages. However, it will have to try harder on this matter since it is in the spotlight after the investigation started by the Labor Department and the publication of this new memo.

Source: The Washington Post