I'd recommend reading this too
I can't address the validity of his first two points since I haven't read the entire memo. But even if the conclusions of the memo are false, I don't think that's actually worth firing someone over. Being wrong shouldn't be worthy of dismissal unless it's malicious or otherwise violates the rules of civil discourse.
The third point in that response is something that, in my mind, warrants HR response - the whole idea that the memo was a deliberate attempt to belittle female Google staff members.
I don't, at least skimming the article, see the author implying that women are biologically unsuitable for working at Google. He makes claims about average differences in certain personality traits (some of which are probably false conclusions, but, again, I'd have to read more) based on small selections of literature, and then tries to extrapolate from there to explain the tech gap. Is that valid reasoning? I don't know. But it doesn't constitute a deliberate, targeted attack against his female colleagues like Zunger claims.
Also like, at least a paragraph of this guy's response to the memo is just him complaining about having to explain it to his friends. Controversy is not inherently bad.
