Two Google executives criticized a memo that circulated late last week at the company from an unnamed engineer suggesting that there were « biological causes » for underrepresentation of women in technology and leadership.
(Reuters) – Two Google executives criticized a memo that circulated late last week at the company from an unnamed engineer suggesting that there were « biological causes » for underrepresentation of women in technology and leadership.
Among the views in the employee’s roughly 3,000-word memo was that « distribution of preferences and abilities of men and women differ in part due to biological causes and that these differences may explain why we don’ t see equal representation of women in tech and leadership. »
Technology news site Motherboard, which first reported the employee’s memo, also reported that a Google employee said the memo had gone « internally viral. » Gizmodo published a copy of the memo.
The memo stoked a heated debate over treatment of women in the male-dominated Silicon Valley that has boiled for months following sexual harassment scandals at Uber Technologies Inc and several venture capital firms. Google, the world’s largest search engine and a unit of Alphabet Inc, recently hired a new vice president of diversity, integrity and governance, Danielle Brown.
Brown sent a memo in response to the engineer’s, saying that it « advanced incorrect assumptions about gender. »
« 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, » she added.
Google vice president Aristotle Balogh also wrote an internal post criticizing the employee’s memo, saying « stereotyping and harmful assumptions » could not be allowed to play any part in the company’s culture.
A Google spokesperson told Reuters that the statements from Brown and Balogh were official responses from Google.
