I’m an Ex-Google Woman Tech Leader and I’m Sick of Our Approach to Diversity

Great article. Sad that if this article had been written by a man, it would not be getting any attention and the comments would be calling the author "sexist".

Here are my 2 cents as a male (thus my opinion on the issue automatically doesn't carry any weight to most of you). Women chose to pursue tech less than men (just look at any open source project), and this starts way before college. I took CS in high school - not because anybody encouraged me, but because I taught myself how to code as a kid in order to make videogames and cheat at them - and there were very few women in that class.

That's why it boggles my mind when people act as if discrimination is the reason why women are underrepresented in tech. Girls are underrepresented in introductory CS courses in high school, meaning they're clearly not even choosing to pursue the field as much as men. You can't claim discrimination if they're not even signing up for the introductory classes. And anyone who's taken a CS course in college knows that at least half the students there have been coding since they were kids (I graduated a while ago so I'd imagine that's even more the case now) - again, not because anybody told them to, but because they sought that knowledge out themselves - which can be intimidating to newcomers who've never seen "Hello, World".

Videogames are probably the main reason why men pursue CS more than women. The naive feminist will say "videogames are targeted towards boys". Yes they are - but that's because videogame developers are predominantly male, and game developers are more likely to create games that they themselves would enjoy. Videogames being male-dominated is simply a reflection of gendered biological differences, not some conspiracy to exclude women.

Any sort of discrimination on the basis of gender/race is a problem, that's a given and nobody will dispute that. But it should not be considered a problem that women choose to pursue tech less than men, just like it's not considered a problem that men are less likely to pursue nursing, primary/secondary education, psychiatry, fashion, and yoga teaching. Men who like yoga don't give a fuck about the underrepresentation of men in yoga classes.

At the end of the day, this "diversity" debate gets way too much attention. There used to be a time when the focus was on the tech and doing cool things, not what people looked like.

You're completely missing one of the main points of the whole gender discrimination discourse: that there are strong social influences that prevent women from going to tech long before your 'before college', as well as during college and after college. There are many turning points at which girls are influenced the way that discourages them from tech instead of helping them to develop interest in it. So yes, discrimination is definitely the reason why women are underrepresented in tech, even if there would not be 50/50 women/men ratio without discrimination. You can claim discrimination if the environment subtly discourages you with constantly signalling that you shouldn't pursue a certain path. And yes, men who'd like to pursue 'non-male' careers also often choose not to because of the social pressure. And no, the diversity debate doesn't 'get too much attention'. It gets significantly less attention than it should, given the scale of this problem and devastating effects the lack of diversity has on societies, working environments, women, men, children - basically, any social group.

Of course there are strong social influences - little boys are given toy trucks while little girls are given dolls. But that's not the same thing as discrimination in hiring and the workforce, which is what these affirmative action policies tackle.

> "And no, the diversity debate doesn't 'get too much attention'. It gets significantly less attention than it should"

First of all, it's not even a "debate" as the memo has shown. It's a one-sided emotional crusade against the opposition, and you're not allowed to disagree with the hivemind.

Why is it only considered a "problem" and attention-worthy when women are underrepresented? Nobody gives a shit about men being underrepresented in certain professions, or women being underrepresented in the trades. There's a clear double standard here.

These early social influences are a very significant part of the whole diversity/discrimination story and of what the diversity policies are trying to solve. The best ways to improve diversity and fix gender biases are still ‘debatable’. But speaking about the ‘memo’, this particular document is incorrect to the level it doesn’t deserve the debate. Despite the author claimed he created it “all in the name of open discussion”, he mainly created a hostile environment for his coworkers, which is unacceptable (and the fact he didn’t even understand that doesn’t excuse him). I agree with this comment on the ‘memo’ story, which is by far the most sane one: https://medium.com/@yonatanzunger/so-about-this-googlers-man... Men are underrepresented in certain professions for sure (and it is a part of the diversity problem), but the current discussion is about underrepresentation in tech, and white men are definitely not the main subject to it (so I don't see any double standards here).