Diversity Manifestos
Yeah, affirmative action and efforts to improve diversity continue to be controversial. Several things are funny about the manifesto. Firstly, if you have questions and would like to discuss, you should phrase them more like questions, not a manifesto.
Secondly, a very important point is that Google is not really hiring the average man OR the average woman, so what does it matter if on average people are different? The average person isn’t a software engineer. Do averages really say that much about what people are like on the margins? The average man isn’t going to be a firefighter any more than the average woman is. In any given town, there could be more women who are stronger and more interested in firefighting.
Thirdly, it’s not like the goal of diversity initiatives is to make the demographic makeup exactly reflect the breakdown in society. In political representation, it should. In the professional world, it should just be more plausible that it isn’t because of systemic bias. The whole point is that variations should only be due to individuals’ idiosyncratic preferences. That means everyone is seen as an individual.
Finally, DUH women already know we are assumed incompetent until proven competent.
Some friends in grad school and I put this curriculum/reading list together about diversity for a Data and Diversity class we ran one semester. Check it out if you have further questions!
