What I find disturbing about the James Damore memo about men’s and women’s comparative capabilities (aside from the memo itself) is that its publication seems to negate women’s daily achievements in the eyes of so many men who read it.
Even the mighty pen can’t change a reality that talented women create each day. It can’t undo the extra work that women have to do just to appear comparable to men in men’s estimations[1].
Anyone who agrees with Damore’s conclusions about women’s abilities based on biology, even just a little, clearly needs to look up once in a while, and pay attention to what women are actually accomplishing.
A memo doesn’t negate talented women or the work they do. Although, we can’t say the same for its proponents’ link to reality.
Postscript: Also read Jeremy Keith’s post titled “Intolerable“.
- It can’t even offer a compelling explanation for why men’s estimations have any real value.
My favourite meme at the moment is the awesome #WITBragDay meme on Twitter that celebrates women in tech. It seems to have been started by Alice Goldfuss with her tweet:
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The result is tweet after tweet of pure inspiration from women in the technology industry. I spent some time reading tweets this morning when I woke up and I found myself smiling because these stories are just awesome.
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
These women, and others like them, are the perfect response to the odious Damore memo. These stories are also the stories I want both our kids to know, especially our daughter. Heck, these stories inspire me as I learn to code. Here is a selection of some of my favourites:
This is probably one of my favourite favourites
And people feel offended by women who breastfeed in public!
I’ve created a Twitter Moment for the tweets I love the most. You can find that here too (it may be more complete and up to date):
My favourite #WITBragDay tweetshttp://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Image credit: The #WOCinTech collection on Flickr, licensed CC BY 4.0
You can read more about the #WOCinTech project here too: “#WOCinTechChat – Promoting diversity in tech through stock photos”