Women’s Brains Are Different and Google Needs More Of Them.

 

Former Google engineer James Damore’s controversial memo that led to his firing earlier this week cited evolutionary differences between men’s and women’s brains to criticize Google’s gender diversity efforts and posit that perhaps women are too naturally neurotic and people-oriented to seek out and thrive in tech jobs.

Damore’s memo was well-researched ― and he’s right that science suggests that men’s and women’s brains are different and have different strengths. But while the latest scientific research on the subject supports some of his claims, it doesn’t support his conclusion.

Scientists have found no difference in intelligence between men and women, but there appear to be some average personality differences that begin early in childhood, persist across many cultures and are, surprisingly, more pronounced in more gender-egalitarian nations.

One of the scientists Damore cites, prominent personality psychologist David Schmitt, found in a 2008 cross-cultural study that women report slightly higher levels of “neuroticism,” meaning they have less tolerance for stressful situations, and they tend to be more agreeable and less assertive than men on average. (Schmitt describes the differences as “‘small’ to ‘moderate’ accounting for perhaps 10{54d2fcdcd494adb6982253be6fe8d5492e5f586157f419110131714f9092ec60} of the variance.”)

Damore uses Schmitt’s research to conclude that these personality differences explain “the lower number of women in high stress jobs,”  ignoring the possibility that high levels of sexism and sexual harassment in the tech industry contribute to women’s anxiety and stress levels, rather than a simple biological inclination toward neuroticism.

Studies have also shown that young girls are less interested in studying male-dominated fields like math and science due to negative stereotypes about their ability and a lack of female role models in those areas.

But even if Damore is right that innate sex differences account for the gender gap in tech jobs, or that women are too people-oriented, cooperative, sensitive and empathetic to pursue and thrive in a field dominated by men, then that builds an even stronger case for promoting gender inclusion efforts across tech companies and for championing women’s leadership in general.

Evolutionary science has long been used to justify racism and sexism. Evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller, who used his research on women’s brains to write a book about seducing them with famed misogynist Tucker Max, argues that the sex differences Damore describes are “one of the best reasons to promote sexual diversity in the workplace.”

“In my opinion,” Miller writes in a response to Damore in Quillette Magazine, “given that sex differences are so well-established, and the sexes have such intricately complementary quirks, it may often be sensible, in purely practical business terms, to aim for more equal sex ratios in many corporate teams, projects, and divisions.”

Source – Huffington Post