Critique of the memo: Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber and its author James Damore -by
KRITI @justlikenormalpeople
Subject : The reasons why he was fired “in my opinion” (something the author should have wrote on his memo)
Pages 1 -3 : reliable, coherent and relatable.
Page 4 : Women are not open to ideas and things, as opposed to aesthetics and feelings - this is the author’s first bias when it comes to women - of course women concentrate more on appearance than men as women are conditioned from a young age to look pretty (another gender based conditioning and discrimination) but using the excuse that women invest more in their personal grooming and upkeep of personal spaces to justify that they just like aesthetic is misleading. Women are open to ideas and things, in adjacent to aesthetics and feelings. Women place importance on ideas and things and bring a different perspective to it that men lack. The author should further explain his definition of ideas and “things” to clarify what he means as his current definition in the paper is weak.
Women are unable to negotiate high salary because they are less assertive - another bias from the author - when women do ask for higher salaries they are repeatedly undermined and rejected by their supervisors. (same can be said for agreeable men who don’t pose a threat to the supervisor) The supervisors might also have a bias from the belief that coercing women to not ask for pay raise ensures that they will be more agreeable towards rejection than men as men get emotional and their anger turns to rage meaning more damage to the supervisor who denied their pay raise request. This is mostly due to personality issues which predominantly puts women at a disadvantage.
Women are Neurotic (higher anxiety, lower stress tolerance) - no! women can handle stress well, they just handle stress differently than menwomen just internalise stress while men externalise stress into rage - this is a perfect example how women are better apt at handling stress as they introspect while men’s stress leads to property damage and possible threats to human targets.
Page 5 : While gender gaps are biological the abuse of such gaps definitely is sexism - that is the real issue which the author has surpassed
in his assumption.
Men’s higher drive for status can be traced back to the gender based conditioning of men to be superior to women and girls from an early age as toddler males. There is no denying this! So the real issue is gender based childhood conditioning which should be changed.
Women are actively discouraged from taking up high risk jobs like mining. It might stem from the fact that when women enter a workforce, they push for changes for proper sanitation, better safety measures and wellbeing of the workforce which is costly for most employers who benefit from lacks costly safety measures in the workplace as men are not conditioned to look after their wellbeing and hygiene. This is a direct result of corporate greed and desire for high profit margins at the expense of the employee and their wellbeing rather than the fault of women. Women find better ways for cohabitation, inclusion and wellbeing in every sector they employ.
Page 6 : Women look for more work-life balance because societies across the globe have put more pressure on women for child care than men. Men are only able to pursue such high status, time intensive jobs because they have women partner at home who take up all of the child bearing and nearly most of the child rearing responsibilities and household responsibilities in a world where its expectant and forced on women rather than men. As a species where a family unit is incumbent towards its survival, gender based roles of only women as care givers for the children has held women and girls back from active pursuit of such high paying and time intensive jobs. It’s not that women desire these roles less than men, but the reason that if they did - then the children would suffer because men do not step up to child rearing and household care. So the only possible solution for women is to stay childless to progress in the work place. The author being a man has totally overlooked this very crucial point while writing the whole memo.
Total lack of maternal care; menstrual leave, care and pay; pregnancy related healthcare; pre and post natal leave, care and pay for women have drastic measures for women in the workplace. Mensuration and/or maternity are a crucial part of life for women and girls for which the workplace has not made any concessions and safety measures. This is a direct gender based discriminated oversight of women on the part of institutions worldwide.
The author states that Google should benefit from it’s proposed changes not the women and men who work there is a gross misunderstanding of why we should even work. Corporations and governments are built to
ensure a better life for the people and community, not the other way around. In real life, this has been perverted to suit the needs of the rich people who benefit from exploitation and abuse of the masses. But the principle stands - institutions are built for the needs of the peoplepeople are not built for the needs of the institutions.
Page 7 : Gender pay gap is very real. For the same position and amount of billable hours women and men put in at work, women are paid less than men globally. It is statistiacly proven by research analysts.
No, the society at large is not focused on the protection and safety of women and girls as the author states. If it were true then there would be more safe women which is not true. Every woman and girl across the globe has experienced sexual assault and/or rape in the course of their lives perpetrated by men. This means that women and girls are essentially not safe. Women and girls are actively called liars and discouraged from reporting on sexual assault and rape. Women are never believed in these circumstances. The resources and strategies that deal with assessment and persecution of rape and sexual assault are purposely underdeveloped to hinder prosecution of men who rape. Sexual assault and rape is legally considered as “property damage” across the globe. Women are not properties or livestock as they have been considered not 50 years back. Women are human being and by the virtue of being human, harm to their person should be prosecuted at the same level as the prosecution for degrees of murder, which is not in practice when it should be. This is another instance where society and culture fail women and girls repeatedly because of gender based violence and discrimination. This issue can not be overlooked even if the author desires it as this issue does have consequences in the work place. This constant threat of sexual assault and rape by colleagues, supervisors and employers (male dominated roles) is another form of oppression which hinders women’s advancement in the work place. While women who are at the top positions are disparaged for using their sexuality with men in power to gain those high positions in the workplace (without any merit). The author has completely failed to address these important issues under the guise of “interpreted as a form of women’s oppression” statement.
Yes, women spend more than men - the reason is that women buy for other people in their lives as well - shopping for their male partner’s daily needs, shopping for their children’s daily needs, all household expanses, women are more compassionate so they shop for their relatives and friends and donate to charities. Men often delegate their personal purchases to women in their lives. This is the real reason women spend
more while still getting paid less. Further reasons that women spend more is that women from an early age are pressured into investing more in their appearance and care products (the reason that fashion and beauty is a billion dollar industry). Overconsumption globally has aided this gender based pressure. While men are classic targets for real estate, automobiles and video games, sports related expanse and related paraphernaliawomen’s needs and expenditure is seen as frivolous while men’s expenditure as crucial and mandatory.
The reason men are expected to be strong - again - traces back to childhood gender based conditioning. This should be changed and women should not be blamed for this.
Page 8 Yes I do believe that no wing (left or right) should have monopoly but saying that we should empower conservatives is bad for human rights. Human rights that should unequivocally include women’s rights should hold precedence over all “winged” debate and discourse.
This statement is untrue- “conservatives tend to be higher in conscientiousness”
Take aways : The author, an introvert male has subconsciously but very clearly stated his own bias against women in his memo to google.
The two main biases are -
1. women put less time and effort in ideas, things and high stress, time intensive jobs;
2. Women are protected throughout cultures and societies.
Both these presumptions are untrue as I have hoped to prove above.
The two things he should have considered while writing the memos are -
1. Women needs (biological and mental) are consistently overlooked
2. Women’s safety is constantly at risk.
Yes statistically and biologically men have advantage over women when it come to one on one combat but due to women’s nuanced personalities and traits such as -
1. agreeability,
2. gregariousness,
3. better stress management,
4. balancing ideas and focus on things with community building
5. Demand for better safety measures
6. Hygiene and personal wellbeing
7. Extroversion and introversion
8. Compassion and child bearing and rearing abilities
women are more suited to working at all positions in cooperations rather than men who rely on hormonal stress related rage (combined with low emotional intelligence) to succeed in the workplace which is dangerous.
I hope the author reassesses his bias to overlook my two postulated points above.