Google has experienced an onslaught of negative media coverage regarding its diversity practices in the last few years. Not to worry though, a senior engineer at the company has concocted some advice for Google’s diversity team devoted to bridging gender pay gaps: abandon the endeavor altogether.
The male software engineer, whose identity has not yet been revealed, shared a treatise with his employees that rebuked his company’s visions for gender and racial diversity. In his work titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber” which became “internally viral” amongst his co-workers, he outlines what he believes to be inherent discrepancies between men and women that he concluded to be conducive to discrimination in the tech industry.
Recommended Stories
In an exclusive release of the full rant to Gizmodo, the author concludes that women have “openness directed towards feelings and aesthetics rather than ideas.” In generalizing his theory on innate differences between men and women in the industry, he states that women generally have “a harder time negotiating salary, asking for raises, speaking up, and leading” and thus “relatively prefer jobs in social or artistic areas.” The document then delved into the author’s opinion that Google’s endeavors to strive for balanced gender and racial diversity were futile and only led to more “discriminatory practices.”
These comments drew strong criticism from executives at Google. In an internal Google+ post, Vice President of Engineering Ari Balogh rebutted the argument to lessen focus on diversity at all levels.
“Building an open, inclusive environment is core to who we are, and the right thing to do. ‘Nuff said.” Balogh posted in his Google+ response.
Danielle Brown, only weeks into her new job as the Vice President of Diversity at Google, also stepped in to refute the anti-diversity treatise, despite citing that she was still learning the lay of the land at the company. In her recent memo to Google’s employees, Brown acknowledged that being open to other viewpoints is essential to any culture, but that they should be in harmony with company’s code of conduct.
Brown criticized the comments as advancing “incorrect assumptions about gender” and further stated that “we are unequivocal in our belief that diversity and inclusion are critical to our success as a company, and we’ll continue to stand for that and be committed to it for the long haul.”
The controversial tirade comes on the heels of a Department of Labor investigation into Google for discrimination in pay. Google infamously refused to hand over their pay data, arguing that the request was “overly broad, a violation of its employees’ privacy, and costly to comply with.”
Ironically, a few days after Equal Pay Day, the tech company asserted on Twitter that they were making strides in bridging the gender pay gap on a global scale. Google was then met with vociferous social media backlash, which further incited the company to hire Danielle Brown as the new VP of Diversity.
In light of the recent developments, Brown still approves of the pay realignment moves that Google is currently making.
Brown stated, “Google has taken a strong stand on this issue, by releasing its demographic data and creating a company wide OKR on diversity and inclusion. Strong stands elicit strong reactions. Changing a culture is hard, and it’s often uncomfortable. But I firmly believe Google is doing the right thing, and that’s why I took this job.”
