Google firing sparks potential lawsuits over gender pay gap, discrimination
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (KGO) -- The Google employee who was fired after writing a controversial memo about women in tech is speaking out for the first time.
RELATED: Fired Google engineer who sent memo files labor complaint
Meanwhile, there's word Google may be facing a flood of lawsuits from female employees.
James Damore went from a software engineer to a political lightning rod after writing a memo that has been read around the world.
In it, he criticizes Google's diversity initiatives and argues that "biological differences" between men and women are behind the "gender pay gap" in tech.
He also paints Google culture as being intolerant of the right.
Conservative YouTuber Stefan Molyneux asked Damore to elaborate on his "biological differences" theory:
"Personal difference between men and women is just differing interest in people vs. things," Damore said in the YouTube interview. "And this has links to prenatal testosterone and that explains a lot of the differences in career choice. For example teacher vs. coding."
While Damore is threatening legal action against Google. Female employees may be taking action of their own.
San Francisco law firm Atshuler Berzon put out an ad a month ago -- asking women working at Google to call the firm if they think they've been discriminated against.
The firm tells ABC7 News more than 70 women have come forward.
This comes in the wake of the Department of Labor's audit that concludes a gender pay gap exists at the Mountain View-based tech giant -- a charge Google denies.
RELATED: Google engineer pens controversial memo
Google CEO Sunder Pichai is leading a town hall meeting Thursday to address the company-wide uproar resulting from Damore's memo.
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