A Google employee whose internal memo set off a firestorm by acknowledging the fact that men and women are biologically different has been fired, in a case that has rocked Silicon Valley. The employee told Reuters that he was "exploring all possible legal remedies."
James Damore, an engineer at Google's parent company 'Alphabet,' caused a major controversy when a memo he wrote about the gender gap at hi-tech companies attributed it to innate gender differences between men and woman.
On average, men and women biologically differ in many ways," he wrote.
"These differences aren’t just socially constructed," he explained, stating that "they're universal across human cultures, often have clear biological causes and links to prenatal testosterone...and are exactly what we would predict from an evolutionary psychology perspective."
He also pointed out that "biological males castrated at birth and raised as females still identify and act like males."
Demore blasted the search giant's attempts to silence him, saying that "Googles (sic) left bias has created a politically correct monoculture that maintains its hold by shaming dissenters into silence," and "This silencing has created an ideological echo chamber where some ideas are too sacred to be honestly discussed."
Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended his company, writing in a company wide email that "We strongly support the right of Googlers to express themselves, and much of what was in that memo is fair to debate, regardless of whether a vast majority of Googlers disagree with it. However, portions of the memo violate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace."
Silicon Valley's overwhelming left-wing orientation is well known. In the 2016 presidential election, 95% of all campaign donations from the hi-tech capital went to Hilary Clinton, and Facebook's VP of growth, Alex Shultz recently admitted that "there is definitely a left-wing bias to any company based in San Francisco."
A similar controversy erupted in Harvard back in 2005, after University President Lawrence Summers posited at an economics conference that the reason women were not highly represented in the in high-end science and engineering fields was due to "innate differences" and blamed women for being "less likely than men to work the long hours expected for advancement in these careers."
Summers was forced to resign his position in the ensuing national furor.