Anita Hill, known for her testimony against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, called on women in the tech industry to sue their employers for sexual discrimination.
Hill, who accused Thomas in 1992 of sexual harassment, responded to an internal memo written by Google engineer James Damore, who claimed women are not as biologically fit to be in tech industry.
In a New York Times op-ed Tuesday, Hill writes: “Consider what lawyers for Google said in May, in testimony in a suit alleging wage discrimination against women: It would be too burdensome for the company to collect data on salaries. Given recent Department of Justice moves to limit protections against gender and race discrimination, it’s hard to foresee serious government intervention coming from the current administration.”
Hill adds, “Nor can we wait for bad press and shareholder class actions to force out negligent chief executives responsible for cultures of inequality. Instead, women in the industry should collectively consider their legal options. Top among these would be class-action discrimination cases against employers.”
However, author and columnist Ann Coulter tweeted multiple times in defense of Damore. For instance, she mocked the female google engineers who decided not to go to work after news of the leaked memo surfaced. Coulter tweeted:
“Male engineers, for example, would never skip work because they were upset about a memo.” – Things James Damore left out of his memo https://t.co/VHJxIAXx5s
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) August 8, 2017
Coulter continued with her tweets, saying:
A professor explains why firing geeky male engineers like James Damore for “offensive” speech my be against the law. https://t.co/z9DE3pt0AQ
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) August 8, 2017
Evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller also chimed in, tweeting:
The original #googlememo, including all its links to research, which @Gizmodo deleted before criticizing it as lacking empirical support. https://t.co/hfXaoJlqym
— Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) August 8, 2017
The memo debate has sparked heated discussion on various social media platforms.