After you have completed the readings, please respond to the following questions:
1. Based on your readings, what do you think the fired engineer's intended message was? What did he do right, and what did he do wrong in conveying his message to his intended audience?
2. It has been argued that the fired engineer's memo was not intended to belittle women or minorities, but rather intended to encourage Google employees to take account of their own biases as a means of reducing the so-called gender gap in tech employment. Putting your own opinions aside, refer back to his memo, and cite examples where this viewpoint perhaps might be justified.
3. Many of the offensive statements made by the Google employee were based on opinion, rather than fact, such as "most women are biologically unsuited to working in tech because they were more focused on 'feelings and aesthetics than ideas' and had 'a stronger interest in people rather than things.'” In what ways could the employee have strengthened his memo to persuade his audience , using facts, rather than opinion?
4. Google has dealt with criticism that it has not done enough to hire and promote women and minorities.The fired employee simultaneously questioned Google's recruitment practices for a diverse workforce and argued that the reason there are not a lot of women in tech positions is not because they are being discriminated against, but because they do not want high-stress jobs, are more anxious, and crave more work-life balance than men.
Google has long promoted a culture of openness, with employees allowed to question senior executives and even mock its strategy in internal forums. In what ways do you believe this memo crossed the line in also advancing harmful gender stereotypes even while criticizing Google hiring practices?
