Just how common are the views on gender espoused in the memo that former Google engineer James Damore was recently fired for distributing on an internal company message board? The flap has women and men in tech — and elsewhere — wondering what their colleagues really think about diversity. Research we’ve conducted shows that while most people don’t share Damore’s views, male engineers are more likely to.
How the Imagined “Rationality” of Engineering Is Hurting Diversity — and Engineering
Just how common are the views on gender espoused in the letter Google engineer, James Damore, was recently fired for distributing on an internal company message board? The flap has women and men in tech – and elsewhere – wondering what their colleagues really think about diversity. Research shows that while most people don’t share his views, male engineers are more likely to. In fact, they’re four times as likely as male lawyers to argue that diversity efforts will hurt their profession by “lowering the bar.” One reason may be “engineering purity” — the ethos inculcated in engineering courses and departments that engineering should be free from the taint of social or political concerns. There are costs to this attitude; for one thing, it gives engineers low in emotional intelligence a pass for violating basic workplace social norms. But interacting with one’s colleagues without deeply offending them is a job skill. If engineering departments want their grads not to get summarily fired, maybe they should add that to the curriculum, too.