Some Thoughts On That Sexist Memo

Yeah, just another hot take on that sexist Google memo. I could only read bits of it because it was just such garbage that I didn't want to waste my time on the whole thing. I also read a few other takes, but it overall seems like standard garbage and it doesn't really surprise me that a senior engineer at Google thinks this way. One of the bits that really stuck out to me was this:

We always ask why we don't see women in top leadership positions, but we never ask why we see so many men in these jobs. These positions often require long, stressful hours that may not be worth it if you want a balanced and fulfilling life.

This just sorta pissed me off because it's ignoring that most women don't opt for these jobs because sexism forces them to do almost all the household labor. Maybe it's also because, as a man, you can have what society deems as a "balanced" life while working long hours because your wife is taking care of the kids and a man isn't considered a bad dad if he's not super involved in the kid's life. This is total crap and bad for women and men that people think this way.

The real downside is that tech is the perfect industry to help even this out since it's pretty easy to work from home in most jobs. In one of my first dev jobs, one of the senior engineers that I worked with worked from home twice a week after his kid was born, alternating days with his wife, so she could go back to work too. I thought that was pretty cool and not a freedom most industries have! Maybe this is a faulty assumption that I'm making since I'm not a parent, but I'm assuming if you have kids you want to spend time with them?