“Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber” – DfE Response

A leaked memo from a Google employee titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber”, in which women were described as less suited to coding than men, has attracted widespread comment and criticism in the press. The employee in question has since been sacked.

CEO Sundar Pichai has sent a public note about the situatution to Google employees, and Danielle Brown is already in post as Google’s newly appointed Vice President of Diversity.

Google’s employee resource groups, including Women@Google and Google Women in Engineering, both of which are actively supported by senior executives and have thousands of members, regularly host summits, provide career development opportunities, and offer mentorship.

Google’s updated workforce representation data shows that overall women make up 31 percent of our employees. In the past three years, women in tech roles have grown from 17 percent to 20 percent (from 19 percent to 20 percent over the last year) and women in leadership roles have grown from 21 percent to 25 percent (from 24 percent to 25 percent over the last year).

The Department for Eduation strongly believes that no one should held back from any career because of their gender. That is why the government continues to encourage girls to consider a wider range of careers, including in higher paying sectors traditionally dominated by men, through funding programmes in schools to increase take-up of STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects and programmes such as STEM ambassadors.

This has been shown through the number of girls taking maths A-level increasing by 11% from 2010 to 2016, and the number of girls taking physics A-level increasing by 14% over the same six years.

Speaking on this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Justine Greening, Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities said:

Throughout history, women have made significant contributions to science – without the likes of Marie Curie, Jane Goodall or Rosalind Franklin, the scientific world would be very different. But days like today remind us that we need more girls to follow in their path and become the scientists of tomorrow.

That’s why we are working to get more girls studying science, technology, maths and engineering subjects and are investing £12.1 million over the next three years to improve science teaching. Getting more young women choosing STEM subjects we will not only ensure our future workforce has the skills we need to drive the future productivity and economy of this country, it will also help us to tackle the gender pay gap by getting more women into these high paid, skilled careers.