How We Lost the Women in Computing

In July 2017, Google engineer James Damore distributed a memorandum titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber," which was critical of Google's diversity policies. The memo "went viral" and was widely distributed inside and outside of Google, leading to extensive media discussions. In August 2017, Google fired Damore for violation of the company's code of conduct. The U.S. National Labor Relations Board concluded that Google did not violate U.S. federal labor law when it fired Damore, but Damore filed a lawsuit against Google for discrimination. The memo's central argument was that the gender disparity observed in the tech industry in general, and in Google in particular, could be partially explained by biological differences between women and men.