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Comment by JustAnotherPat | Hacker News Reader

>"each Googler to do their utmost to create a workplace culture that is free of harassment, intimidation, bias and unlawful discrimination.”

Which part did he break exactly? Bias? Seems like something that can be construed to mean basically any ideology or opinion, conservative or liberal.

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I think he went too far when he suggested women are inherently less capable in the computer sciences than men.

Saying diversity training sucks, or that Google should re-evaluate how they encourage diversity, or that men are getting a raw deal, would have been tolerable.

Would he have gone too far to suggest that women are inherently physically weaker than men? Or that they are inherently longer-lived than men?

What about that they are inherently less interested in football?

Probably, because longer-lived and interest in football are not inherent biologically. A male baby is not born interested in football, it is socialized. Men work more dangerous jobs and are socialized into more unhealthy behaviors, diets, etc that can result in lower lifespan than women.

Testosterone has a direct, measurable effect on competitiveness and aggressiveness. Why wouldn't you think this would affect the overall sports preference between the sexes? In an environment where men have significantly higher testosterone than women, wouldn't there naturally be more men than women in an aggressive sport like football? Would you expect a 50% gender parity in such an environment?

Culture plays an effect, but we really need to realize that biology probably pays a role too, and potentially affects gender parities in many careers.

This is a just-so story. Given the same scientific information in 1950, we might have predicted a continued aversion to science in women (unless you also believe the women of 1950 to be biologically different to today's modern superwomen). But the exact opposite thing happened, in almost every field --- except CS, which has lost women over the past decade.

None of that would have been tolerable. He'd still have been fired. Let's not pretend otherwise.

*to Google management, I assume you mean?

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