, Columnist
Google's Work Is Not Over
Failing to encourage inclusiveness and diversity can put a company's success in danger.
Plenty of holes left to fill.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The firing of a Google employee for writing a memo that suggested women are biologically less equipped for engineering and management jobs has triggered a whole range of reactions, from those who strongly support the company’s action to those who see it as repression of free speech. Where you come out on this is partly a function of your assessment of what economists call “the initial conditions” -- that is, the actual situation on the ground. On that basis, and given my experience and assessment of the average workplace, the move by Google -- which said the memo advanced “harmful gender stereotypes” -- puts the company on the right side of history.