Google Fires Software Engineer For Controversial Memo On Women In Tech

Google has fired James Damore, the senior software engineer who penned an internal memo disagreeing with the company's diversity policies. He had been working as a Google software engineer since December 2013, and prior to that was a research scientist at MIT.

Damore, who believes biology is partly responsible for why the tech industry doesn't see equal representation of women in tech and leadership, reportedly was fired for “perpetuating gender stereotypes,” reports Bloomberg. He confirmed his firing in an email to Bloomberg. 

The news of the engineer's firing came shortly after Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent a company wide memo.

In the memo sent Monday to employees, Pichai made no mention that the company would take action against the engineer, but did explain to employees how portions of the controversial memo violate the company's Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in the workplace.

Google claims its workplace supports diversity, and is working to make improvements. Data from the company's most recent demographic report published earlier this year states that men make up 69% of the workforce at Google, and the remainder are women. Some 56% of employees are Caucasian; 35% are Asian; 4% are two or more races; 4% are Hispanic; 2% are Black; and 1% are classified as other.

While 20% of employees in tech positions now are women, that's a 1% increase from 2016. Some 25% of employees in leadership positions are women, up 1% from last year. 

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