The case of the ex-Google engineer leaves perplexing questions for those of us who value both diversity and independent thinking in Silicon Valley.
Two fundamental questions are posed by the case of James Damore, the ex-Google engineer who was fired for an explosive memo suggesting that biological differences account for the disparities between men and women in tech jobs and leadership.
The first question is whether Damore’s opinion can be defended. The second is whether Google should have fired him. Neither answer is quite as easy as the debate would pretend. How we respond betrays our bias.
On the first, Damore was wrong, deeply wrong, but not for the reasons ascribed to him. His memo actually has nuance about the expectations foisted on men and women. His primary error is that he lacks hope for a more just world. I’ m not sure he wants one.
On the second, you have to conclude that Google’s response was not a question of right or wrong. It was a question of business and politics. A quasi-monopoly like Google fears harboring someone with views seen as so offensive by so many.
I do not weep for Damore, 28. He’ ll get another job, probably at a company with more sympathy for his conservative viewpoint. But his case leaves perplexing questions for those of us who value diversity of people and thought in Silicon Valley.
Let’s take those two questions in detail. At some level, all of us understand there are differences between the sexes. But Damore’s error was in arguing that chromosomes are broadly predictive. People do not accept biological judgments as fate. They think of their own aspirations.
“Women, on average, have more openness directed toward feelings and aesthetics rather than ideas. Women generally also have a stronger interest in people rather than things,’ ’ he writes, going on to explain why women end up in “front-end’ ’ fields like marketing, while men become coders. (see goo.gl/GxSMGr) .
The first response from almost any ambitious woman I know would be “Which average women are we talking about here? Sheryl Sandberg? Hillary Clinton?’ ’ If you’ ve ever been discounted because of your sex, you know how toxic this sounds.
I’ m not one of these people who looks at the numbers and automatically assumes there is a precise correlating injustice. (Google’s workforce is 31 percent female, but only 20 percent of tech positions are occupied by women) .
More important is the hope that we transmit to every 7th grade girl — or boy — struggling with math. Whatever the reason for gender gaps, diversity remains a worthwhile societal goal. It creates the hope for the future.
Damore gives this idea a bow, but I’ m not sure he believes in it deeply. “Being emotionally unengaged helps us better reason about the facts,’ ’ he wrote.
That takes me to the second question: Should Google have fired Damore? There’s little question the company has the right to do it. Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, told the New York Times that the engineer was fired because he had perpetuated “harmful gender stereotypes’ ’ in the workplace.
Unfortunately, the judgment in social media, which took the memo viral, paid scant attention to Damore’s larger point, which is that a place like Google has a kind of ideological echo chamber that shames dissenters into silence.
You don’ t have to agree with that — there’s evidence on the other side. But it is a worthwhile issue to debate. By firing Damore, Google assures that the debate won’ t arise inside its hallowed halls. In a strange irony, the company validated his point.
