Google has canned the employee who penned an internal memo that attempted to rationalize the tech industry's gender gap by citing gender stereotypes. Software engineer James Damore informed Bloomberg of his dismissal in an email Monday, telling the publication he had been removed for "perpetuating gender stereotypes" in his memo entitled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber."
Earlier Monday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai publicly shared a note with employees in which he called portions of the memo "offensive" and revealed he was cutting short an overseas family vacation to address the fallout. "To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK," Pichai said. "It is contrary to our basic values and our Code of Conduct, which expects 'each Googler to do their utmost to create a workplace culture that is free of harassment, intimidation, bias, and unlawful discrimination.'"
In his memo, published in full by Gizmodo over the weekend, Damore relied on gender stereotypes to argue against gender gaps as being inherently sexist. Damore also called for Google to "demoralize diversity," "stop alienating conservatives," "confront" their biases, "de-emphasize empathy," and more.
In an email to the New York Times, Damore questioned the legality of his firing. "I have a legal right to express my concerns about the terms and conditions of my working environment and to bring up potentially illegal behavior, which is what my document does," Damore claimed.
When asked for additional comment, a Google rep directed Complex to Pichai's previously published statement.
