Over the weekend, an “anti-diversity manifesto” created by an anonymous Google employee went viral. “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber” is a 10-page document published by a software engineer makes several arguments, one of which pertains to gender diversity (or the lack thereof).
The author argues that women are underrepresented in tech not because they face bias and discrimination, but because of inherent psychological differences between men and women. “We need to stop assuming that gender gaps imply sexism,” he writes, going on to argue that Google’s educational programs for young women may be misguided.
On Saturday, Danielle Brown, Google’s VP for diversity and inclusion, sent a letter to employees saying the employee’s memo “advanced incorrect assumptions about gender” and is “not a viewpoint that I or this company endorses, promotes or encourages.”
The troubling post has gone public at an inopportune time for Google; the tech giant is currently battling a wage discrimination investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, which has found that Google routinely pays women less than men in comparable roles. The company’s annual diversity report in June found that 31% of its employees are women, a number that has remained unchanged from 2016.