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Institutional Sexism

Harvard chief defends views on women in science
Last Updated Wed, 19 Jan 2005
CBC News

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. - The president of Harvard University is defending remarks he made Friday suggesting that innate differences between the sexes could help explain why fewer women succeed in science and math.

Lawrence Summers also questioned what role – if any – discrimination plays in keeping female scientists and engineers from advancing their careers.
Harvard University President Lawrence Summers (AP file photos)

Summers, who prefaced his remarks by saying he was not speaking for Harvard, said women with children are reluctant to put in the 80-hour work weeks needed to advance to top positions in math and science.

In a statement released Monday night, Summers stood by his comments and denied that he suggested women lack the ability to succeed at higher levels in science.

"I did not say that, nor do I believe it," he said.

Nancy Hopkins, a Harvard graduate and professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who once led an investigation of sex discrimination at MIT, walked out of the conference during Summers's speech.

Hopkins said Summers was "pompously" presenting biased views that the conference had spent the first half of the day trying to refute.

About 50 American academics participated in the economics conference on diversifying the science and engineering workforce.

The Boston Globe first reported Summers's remarks on Sunday, but no transcript or recording was made.

Summers later described his remarks to the Globe, saying "it's possible I made some reference to innate differences."

He said people "prefer to believe" that the reason there are fewer women in science and engineering is due to social factors and discrimination, "but there are things that need to be studied."

Summers said he was trying to provoke debate and his remarks were made "in the spirit of academic inquiry." The organizer of the conference said he told Summers to be provocative.

Summers previously faced criticism because the number of women offered senior positions at Harvard had dropped each year of his three-year presidency. Last year, four out of 32 tenure offers in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences went to women.

Research shows girls excel in math and science until they reach Grade 6, but social and environmental factors hold women back, said mathematics Prof. Susan Ganter, executive director of the Association for Women in Science in the U.S.

Responses:

Anger at lecturer's sexist remarks
January 19, 2005

HARVARD University's president has raised howls among US academics for suggesting innate differences between the sexes may be why fewer women succeed in science and maths careers.

Lawrence H. Summers cited as an example one of his daughters, who as a child was given two trucks in an effort at gender-neutral upbringing.

Yet, he said she named them "daddy truck" and "baby truck", as if they were dolls.

At a conference last week, Mr Summers questioned how great a role discrimination played in keeping female scientists and engineers from advancing at America's elite universities.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist Nancy Hopkins, walked out in protest.

"It is so upsetting that all these brilliant young women [at Harvard] are being led by a man who views them this way," she said.

Five other participants in the National Bureau of Economic Research conference, including Denice Denton, chancellor designate of the University of California, also said they were offended.

Ms Denton described Mr Summers' speech as "pompous lecturing".

Mr Summers, a former treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton defended his comments.

He told the Globe newspaper he had had only mentioned hypotheses based on the scholarly work assembled for the conference and had not expressed his own views.

He already faced criticism because the number of senior job offers to women at Harvard had dropped each year of his three-year presidency.

Others:
China News

Harvard President Apologizes Again for Remarks on Gender
By SARA RIMER New York Times
Published: January 20, 2005

With the unabated furor over his recent remarks suggesting that women may not have the same innate abilities in math and science as men, Harvard's president, Lawrence H. Summers, issued a two-page apology to the Harvard community late last night.

"I was wrong to have spoken in a way that has resulted in an unintended signal of discouragement to talented girls and women," Mr. Summers said in a letter that was posted on his Harvard Web site.

"Despite reports to the contrary, I did not say, and I do not believe, that girls are intellectually less able than boys, or that women lack the ability to succeed at the highest levels of science," Mr. Summers wrote.

It was his third public statement in three days about his remarks at a conference on women and minorities in science and engineering last Friday, with each statement becoming stronger and more apologetic. His remarks have dominated the discussion on the Harvard campus and beyond, with female academics, alumni and donors expressing concern over his leadership.

Mr. Summers, an economist and a former treasury secretary, acknowledged that he had been hearing plenty of reaction himself. "I have learned a great deal from all that I have heard in the last few days," he wrote in his statement. "The many compelling e-mails and calls that I have received have made vivid the very real barriers faced by women in pursuing scientific and other academic careers."

He wrote in the letter that he had attended the conference, held by the National Bureau of Economics, "with the intention of reinforcing my strong commitment to the advancement of women in science, and offering some informal observations on possibly fruitful avenues for further research."

However, he added: "Ensuing media reports on my remarks appear to have had quite the opposite effect. I deeply regret the impact of my comments and apologize for not having weighed them more carefully."

Mr. Summers emphasized earlier this week that he had been deliberately provocative in his statements at the conference.

Cynthia Friend, the chairwoman of Harvard's department of chemistry and chemical biology, called Mr. Summers's apology "important" and "welcome."

But Professor Friend, who was for about 20 years the only woman in her department at Harvard, said that the apology did not erase Mr. Summers's remarks at the conference. "The problem is you can't take it back," she said.

Nancy Hopkins, a biology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was at the conference and was so upset by Mr. Summers's remarks that she walked out. "I applaud what he is saying now," she said last night, responding to Mr. Summers's letter. "But I still remain deeply concerned that someone could say the things he said last Friday."

More Here and here.

posted by Netwoman @ 1:51 PM