Google has decided to dismiss the damore because of the physiological and sexual determinism published by engineers, which has sparked heated debates on the internet, and has revived the debate over physiological sex determinism.

This July, Google engineer James Damore wrote an internal memo from 〈google's ideological echo chamber 〉google's ideological echo chamber (note i), a 10-page article pointing out that Google's diversity policy and The "left-leaning" ideology suppresses conservative workers and dissent, creating "politically correct ideological echoes"; The authors also try to argue that the gender gap (gender gap) does not equal sex discrimination (sexism), a quick buzz in Silicon Valley.


James Damore
Image source: Business Insider

The article was circulated on a public network for less than one months, and 8th this month Google dismissed James Damore as "a violation of the employee code of conduct". Damore himself told the media that the reason for the company's dismissal was "to perpetuate gender stereotypes", and that he appeared to feel aggrieved and was seeking possible legal action to recover justice.

After the news of Google's dismissal of Damore, the discussion spread rapidly across the web. Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive, also wrote to employees earlier: "It is offensive and wrong to think that some employees are incapable of working because of their biological characteristics." "Point out that Damore's memo advocates the bad sex stereotypes of the corporate culture, violates the employee code of conduct, and steps on the company's bottom line."


Sundar Pichai
Image source: Wikipedia

The biggest controversy in Damore's memo is that he tried to explain biologically the differences between men's and women's sexuality in terms of intentions, personalities, preferences, abilities, and motivations, arguing that the gender gap in salary and rank is a "natural" gender gap (gender gap) rather than " Social construction of "gender discrimination" (sexism). He proposes the appropriate approach for example:

1. Women tend to be more tolerant of emotions than men, and they are more interested in people than they are on things. The technology industry can create more collaborative space and increase interpersonal cooperation.
2. Women in general tend to be more gregarious and more cooperative in their attitudes. Google should try to get a return on its co-operative approach, but it should not erase competition.
3. Women in general are more "neurotic" and more susceptible to tension and stress. Google can continue to arrange decompression courses and benefits.
4. As a result of social traditions, men tend to pay more attention to social status. Society needs to broaden the definition and thinking of male roles.

Is James Damore's physical and sexual determinism reasonable? Where is the reasonable, unreasonable reason is what? In fact, the same discussion was not the first time, after the 2008 financial tsunami, media opinion has fallen to the "physical men will get into trouble" conclusion.

Did testosterone get out of the financial tsunami?

Remember the years of the 2008 Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the financial tsunami and the global economy?

In addition to scrutinized and reviewing subprime mortgages and derivative financial commodities, research institutions around the world are also working to find more "fundamental" reasons.

About 2008-09 years or so, newspapers, news and editorials in Europe and the United States frequently have a saying: "The financial tsunami is the testosterone produced by the female leadership of the world economy."

This type of article is often from a physiological point of view, with a study of a man's " The physiological mechanism "contributed to the financial tsunami: male-owned testosterone and testosterone make physical men more likely to make reckless and risky judgments; In contrast, the physiology of women who do not have testosterone and have more estrogen makes them more cautious and thoughtful in their decisions.

The conclusion of this argument, often "promoting a higher proportion of women into management" as the ultimate prescription for economic problems, was hotly discussed at the time and seemed quite great satisfaction, and many men even thought it was an act of female influence, but feminists did not think so.

What's wrong with physiological determinism?

In view of the above, feminists took the lead in raising many questions.

The first is the effect of physiological determinism, and the notion that testosterone is bad for the world economy seems to be friendly to women at the moment of the financial tsunami.

When the global hot money began to flow, the stock exchange market, "cautious" and "thoughtful" in the financial industry is no longer a desirable trait, but it may deepen and strengthen the stereotyped evaluation of women's behaviour.

We also have to recognize the fact that, in the capitalist financial world, the financial industry is more often than not "conservative","risk-taking" a trait and a way of doing things through policies, bonuses, bonuses and institutional incentives.

Then, at first glance, the talk of women's friendliness will be in the spotlight of the financial tsunami, turning into a statement that restricts women's career development and harms women's right to work.

is biological experimentation not absolute truth?

Both the "testosterone" editorial of the 2008 financial tsunami, or the two-month-old Google employee memo that was hotly discussed, both cite biological evidence that gender does affect gender.

After the Enlightenment of the 18th century, mankind gradually changed from religious superstition to scientific superstition, and it was easy to accept all the claims of "experimentation". To solve scientific superstition is also one of the important subjects of contemporary.

Researchers should know whether the experiment has the ability to prove, must stress reliability and validity, as well as the basic question consciousness and the setting is biased. The logic of problem consciousness is too simplistic and the result is necessarily biased.

In the case of "whether or not the financial tsunami is related to gender", for example, when the experiment only set "testosterone" as a confusing variable, rather than a physiological male's growth environment and education acquisition, the decisive factor is bound to be limited by the "testosterone" option. Any experiment must choose the object from the real world, when the subjects have been baptized by social ideology, social environment, growth background, family education is not put into the experiment to assess the amount of human elements to simplify the gene, perhaps naïve.

In addition, the experimental samples, sources, experimental means and operations, and even the conclusion of the use of logical deduction, will affect whether an experiment may be close to objectivity, near reality.

From 2008 to 2017 and nine years on, science and technology are progressing, but the discussion of gender traits still seems to have stalled. Biological determinism is the reason why men and women have differences in behavior, ability and motivation, and it is the laziness that makes superstitious science and lacks rigorous spirit.

Don't run away, don't simplify complex problems by physical solutions

Men and women are really different from their bodies, but if you look closely, the bodies of different races are not very similar (for example, in Europe and the United States, the skin is whiter and the face is darker). Not just XY chromosomes, any tiny genetic mutation can determine the outer structure of a person's body.

If only the physiological diversity is considered, the global 7.5 billion population is divided into two categories according to the two-yuan physiological gender, and as the criterion of two kinds of people's judgment on action, ability and idea. In jest, such a binary may even be more arbitrary than 4 blood types, 12 zodiac signs and even 12 constellations.

Physiological determinism puts all the emphasis on reproductive organs, ignoring the fact that there are not only two men and women in the physical gender, but also that other genders are excluded, and that there is a complete disregard for gender and personal identity.

In addition, physiological determinism also makes some men feel uncomfortable, but also a man in the news message said: "I am a boy, I think" the average woman more inclusive of emotion and aesthetics, compared to men, their interest in people than things more than "for me is also an affront. In recent years this has been troubling me, and I feel that I have been put in a frame just because of a completely random gender identity. "(Note II)

Damore's memo is worthless?

Looking back on the solution proposed by the Damore memo, in fact, if you take the first sentence, "because the average woman more, so ⋯⋯" the wrong causal hands, his advice is actually very constructive, such as the technology industry can create more space for collaboration, increase interpersonal cooperation; Google should try to get a return on the cooperative attitude. , but it should not erase competition, continue to arrange for reduced-pressure courses and benefits, and, most importantly, the need to broaden the definition and thinking of male roles.

Damore noticed some phenomena: "The technology industry ignores the virtues of negative temperament", but he makes too simplistic a mistake attribution.

"Masculine temperament" as the default value of the workplace environment, do not pay attention to the negative temperament of men and women or other gender needs.

In addition to firing staff Damore, Google can do better because Damore's voice is really important, and his memo shows some of the doubts that some employees may have in the face of a gender-equality process in the workplace.

Penetrate the Damore memo to simplify the physiological and gender attribution, hearing the voices of different attributes of employees and their anxieties, the Damore memo incident brings to mind that the standard and dogmatic political correctness has its limits, increasing communication and gender education or learning opportunities within the company, Recognizing the multiple gender rather than strengthening the single answer is not only possible to achieve a gender-friendly and equal working environment, but also to improve the efficiency of group cooperation, which is indeed the inspiration of the Damore incident.