Anything you don't like will seem to be controversial. To other people - like me - the idea that males and females like different things is so obvious it is insane this debate is even being had at all. Even 10 year olds will tell you that girls like dollhouses and boys like trucks and toy guns and things. It's only after people fall into the grip of bizarre extreme feminist ideology that they start to believe that pointing out differences between men and women is offensive and controversial.
The memo in question would not have affected you, would it? Unless you're saying you were hired to fit a diversity quota and shouldn't be there at all. Even if management had agreed 100% it could only have led to changes in hiring processes, and maybe men turning up to classes and events where they were previously banned. I assume you're OK with that.
I disagree with your assessment because I haven't been exposed to extreme feminist philosophy but rather I'm speaking from my experience as a woman in tech, who loves to code, from the wisdom of my personal journey.
Ok women are more likely to like doll houses as little kids - but I don't know many women working with doll houses as adults?
Women are completely capable of doing anything they want to do. Professions like doctors and lawyers are now split 50/50 between the genders and they were long thought not for women.
And it's my experience that the by far and large reason they don't enter tech is because they think it's boring, not for them, don't understand what they can do with it or how it can appeal to them. Coding is just a tool. Period. Biological influences are not compelling enough to comvince me if anything.
I think they are very controversial if they are used to influence company policy - because they are too abstract, tenuous and there are too many other factors at play. On top of all that, I just don't think it's appropriate for a workplace to be going there.
I really don't understand your position at all, sorry.
You agree with Damore that the underlying issue is interest, not capability.
You say that biological influences on this are "not compelling enough to convince you of anything". Fine, but you offer no alternative explanation for why men find coding more interesting than women. If you have no better explanation, then the scientific papers that do provide an explanation would seem to take precedence, no?
You agree that women are more likely to like dollhouses than boys as children. But you haven't noticed or don't see the connection between what girls play with as children (dolls of babies, people) and the dominance of primary school education by girls? To me the connection is obvious. Girls are more interested in such jobs.
Finally, you say memos like Damore's are controversial if they're used to affect company policy because the problem it addresses is abstract and with many factors going into it. But this is not sufficient to make a memo controversial. Executives write memos on abstract and multi-faceted topics every day: the nature of the digital revolution, how best to motivate their workforce, etc. These memos are all designed to influence company policy around abstract topics.
So what you really mean when you say that Damore's memo is inappropriate for a workplace to be "going there" is that you wish to ban discussion of any gender diversity policies that are not Google's existing diversity policies. These policies are extreme, quite likely illegal and at the very least unfair to men.
This is why I described your views as extreme feminist. I know it won't seem that way to you, but feeling that nobody should even be allowed to voice disagreement to diversity policies - not even by citing science - simply because you feel it's "inappropriate"? That is to me an extremist position. It is the embodiment of intolerance.
The memo in question would not have affected you, would it? Unless you're saying you were hired to fit a diversity quota and shouldn't be there at all. Even if management had agreed 100% it could only have led to changes in hiring processes, and maybe men turning up to classes and events where they were previously banned. I assume you're OK with that.