(no subject)

[timelets]

On a more serious note, the anti-diversity googler argued that

1) sw engineering (or management) is a stressful job;
2) women naturally prefer less stressful jobs;
3) fewer women in sw engineering jobs is the result of their own preferences.

His main proposal was to put women in less stressful jobs away from sw engineering and management, in order to satisfy their natural preferences. [btw, 50 years ago the same arguments were used to discourage women from doctor jobs].

Somehow, the idea of reducing on-the-job stress didn't enter his mind. Moreover, his widely shared opinion increased pressure on female engineers and elevated their level of stress, which, according to his own logic, should've made them even less suitable for sw and management jobs. In short, he did propagate a self-serving gender stereotype that harmed a certain group of employees. Once the memo went viral, the company didn't have much choice = it had to fire him or lose other employees and risk multiple lawsuits.

I feel bad for the guy; he probably meant well.

Comments

[dmytrish]

Still, is he anti-diversity? He explicitly mentions that he is not opposed to diversity, the only thing that he wants to fight is discrimination, including affirmative actions.

I agree that some points are dubious and stereotypical (especially about the right/left divide and rants about left-leaning social sciences), but he has a lot of points that are actually backed by scientific research and statistics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathizing%E2%80%93systemizing_theory, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_differences_in_psychology, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits#Gender_differences) and actually tried to foster discussion about less discriminating ways to represent women.


Somehow, the idea of reducing on-the-job stress didn't enter his mind. - that's his suggestion exactly: making tech and leadership less stressful in general, not just for women:

Make tech and leadership less stressful. Google already partly does this with its many stress reduction courses and benefits.

Any of his suggestions are also universally applicable to men as well, don't you think?

The male gender role is currently inflexible

Feminism has made great progress in freeing women from the female gender role, but men are still very much tied to the male gender role. If we, as a society, allow men to be more "feminine," then the gender gap will shrink, although probably because men will leave tech and leadership for traditionally "feminine" roles.

[timelets]

Interesting. Somehow I didn't see his suggestion to reduce tech & leadership stress (maybe because of the page break). I guess, many people didn't see it either.

Unfortunately, he comes across as an anti-diversity guy because he uses all the stereotypical, and often discredited, anti-diversity arguments. It's really unfortunate that he got fired, essentially, for his lack of communication skills.