Benedikt Meurer JavaScript Engine Hacker and Programming Language Enthusiast.

My take on the "Google Manifesto"

In the past couple of days there's been lots of discussions and ramblings around the so-called Google Manifesto, and what it means for the tech industry, and maybe the world as a whole. I strongly and wholeheartedly disagree with what's being said in that document, and I realize that not stating this publicly doesn't help anyone! I don't believe that inherent psychological or biological differences may explain why we don't see equal representation of women in tech and leadership.

In fact, I have strong evidence that women are at least as capable as men working in our industry and solving challenging problems at large scale. I'm glad to work on the same team with top software engineers like Marja Hölttä and Franziska Hinkelmann, and in the same organization as some of my idols like Parisa Tabriz, hacking on products that are being used by more than two billion people daily! And just as I write these lines, I'm hosting a female SWE intern working on fundamental changes to the Deoptimizer in V8, one of the most complex parts of the engine!

So to all women in tech: Thanks for being with us! Don't give up! We gotta find ways to fix this mess. Together.