San Francisco: A document written by an unnamed senior software engineer at Google suggesting the company encourage "ideological" rather than gender diversity, is generating anger within the company and in Silicon Valley.

Titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber", the male author wrote that women don't make up 50 per cent of the company's tech and leadership positions not because of sexism but because of differences in their preferences and abilities.

18 companies - such as Google and Facebook - are restructuring under the government's Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law (MAAL) Credit:Phil Carrick

He also writes that the company's focus on diversity tends to alienate conservatives, which he believes is bad for business as conservatives tend to be more conscientious, a trait that is required for "much of the drudgery and maintenance work characteristic of a mature company".

The essay comes as Google is engaged in an ongoing effort to try to get more women and minorities into technical and leadership jobs, and as the Mountain View-based company is being investigated by the US Labor Department over allegations that it does not pay men and women equally.