Google employees planned an international walkout and protest last Thursday November 1st to dissent the company’s treatment of women and its handling of sexual assault cases within the company. Google facilities around the world participated, even employees at their main headquarters in California joined in on the walkout. The walkout was planned after The New York Times published a lengthy, extensive report on sexual harassment within Google involving the creator of Android operating system. Andy Rubin, the architect behind Android was accused by a female colleague of coercing her into performing oral sex on him in 2013 according to the New York Times.

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Google discovered credible support in favor of the allegations, asking for Rubin’s resignation and offering a severance package of $90 million. Rubin took to Twitter to refute the allegations as false and as part of a smear campaign against him. Cutting ties with Rubin and offering $90 million was not enough for walkout organizers who held firm that Google was being too lenient. “As Google workers, we were disgusted by the details of the recent New York Times article, which provided the latest example of a culture of complicity, dismissiveness, and support for perpetrators in the face of sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse of power. … For every story in the New York Times, there are thousands more, at every level of the company. Most have not been told.”

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Google likes to boast its own special, friendly culture. Claiming to be the champion of diversity and inclusion, but have done few actions to address systemic racism, sexism, harassment, and provide increased equity. While that culture has allowed workers to walkout, employees are tired of Google’s complacency. Organizers are calling for an end to forced arbitration cases of harassment and discrimination, a commitment to end pay and opportunity inequity, publicly disclosed sexual harassment reports, incorporate a clear, uniform, globally inclusive process for reporting sexual misconduct safely and anonymously, and lastly would like to elevate the Chief Diversity Officer to directly report to the CEO. These calls for action relate directly to Google’s workforce gender makeup in which only thirty-one percent of its global workforce are women. It is important to note, that as an industry, around thirty-five percent of the workforce of major tech companies are female, so they are not too far behind the industry average according to data from company reports.

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Beyond the problems of equity, which seem to be an industry specific problem rather than company specific problem, employee’s want to feel safe and have somewhere to report sexual misconduct. Google’s current system for reporting misconduct is egregious, as it requires employees to forfeit their rights to sue in cases of sexual harassment and often includes confidentially agreements, so victims cannot remise what happened to others.

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Google’s employees are fighting for a change of culture, a culture not unique to Google, a culture that is found globally in many companies still. This fight is for us, young people looking to join the workforce and be treated with respect, dignity, and equality.