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"He could have wrestled with the tension between population-level research and individual experience. He could have stood up for the free flow of information."

by taysic 9y ago

"He could have wrestled with the tension between population-level research and individual experience. He could have stood up for the free flow of information." Honestly I don't agree. It's his job to facilitate an enjoyable work environment not be a champion of free speech. Free speech is plentiful outside the workplace. If you want to contact HR go for it. But the person who wrote the memo opened a can of worms implying that his perspective was super valuable to the discussion rather than the many female employees who work there. There are a myriad of debatable perpestives but this was not the appropriate channel to vent them. Women want to be respected by their coworkers and arguments like "biologically we've hit the max amount of women who are interested in this field" don't align with our experience.

peoplewindow 9y ago
> It's his job to facilitate an enjoyable work environment not be a champion of free speech Obviously he hasn't been doing that. Lots of Googlers apparently feel like they can't speak out on topics that might offend hard-left sensibilities. > Women want to be respected by their coworkers and arguments like "biologically we've hit the max amount of women who are interested in this field" don't align with our experience. Align with your experience? How would that be a valid way to measure anything? The reason this thesis has weight is because it aligns with hiring data. Despite huge efforts software is not 50/50 balanced. This is because there's not 50/50 male/female graduation rates, and that in turn is because there's not 50/50 male/females studying CS to begin with. Obviously there's some cause for this. If you rule out biological causes then you're left with unconscious bias and other evidence-free theories. Biological explanations have actual scientific studies behind them.
- taysic 9y ago
  So just because theories are "evidence-free" or too hard to make studies around, they are untrue? My experience should count for something because I am actually a woman in tech, who loves to code, who started my own successful tech business. People like me should be a vocal part of the discussion because we're a minority who has some first hand insight. Studies have been shown time and time again to sometimes create conclusions from biased premises, to make the wrong conclusions, or simply be contradictory to a dozen other studies. Not to say they are always wrong. I have no reason to believe biology plays no role but I personally don't believe it plays a significant role.

by taysic 9y ago

peoplewindow 9y ago

> It's his job to facilitate an enjoyable work environment not be a champion of free speech Obviously he hasn't been doing that. Lots of Googlers apparently feel like they can't speak out on topics that might offend hard-left sensibilities. > Women want to be respected by their coworkers and arguments like "biologically we've hit the max amount of women who are interested in this field" don't align with our experience. Align with your experience? How would that be a valid way to measure anything? The reason this thesis has weight is because it aligns with hiring data. Despite huge efforts software is not 50/50 balanced. This is because there's not 50/50 male/female graduation rates, and that in turn is because there's not 50/50 male/females studying CS to begin with. Obviously there's some cause for this. If you rule out biological causes then you're left with unconscious bias and other evidence-free theories. Biological explanations have actual scientific studies behind them.

taysic 9y ago
So just because theories are "evidence-free" or too hard to make studies around, they are untrue? My experience should count for something because I am actually a woman in tech, who loves to code, who started my own successful tech business. People like me should be a vocal part of the discussion because we're a minority who has some first hand insight. Studies have been shown time and time again to sometimes create conclusions from biased premises, to make the wrong conclusions, or simply be contradictory to a dozen other studies. Not to say they are always wrong. I have no reason to believe biology plays no role but I personally don't believe it plays a significant role.