Harvard President Under Fire for Sexist Remarks

by Deminiest Daily News (reposted)

Tue, Jan 18, 2005 11:28AM

Harvard President Lawrence Summers is under heavy criticism for suggesting at an academic conference that women have less innate ability to perform in science and mathematics than men. He also downplayed the role discrimination and social factors play in explaining the dearth of female professors in science and engineering at major universities, according to the Boston Globe. “It’s so upsetting that all these brilliant young women [at Harvard] are being led by a man who views them this way,” said Nancy Hopkins, a biologist at MIT and a conference attendee who walked out of Summers’ talk, according to the Globe. Summers has defended his comments, saying that he was merely suggesting that the role of discrimination and innate abilities of women and men in the sciences need further research, according to the Associated Press.

This is not the first time Summers has come under fire. Top women faculty at Harvard are concerned about the lack of women receiving tenure so far under Summers’ reign as president. According to the Globe, the percentage of tenured positions offered to women in the Arts and Sciences has dropped each of the three years Summers has been in office, with only four of 32 tenured positions going to women last year. Summers also famously questioned the scholarship and teaching of African-American Studies scholar Cornel West, who later left Harvard to take a position at Princeton, the Globe reports.

About 50 academics were in attendance at the conference, entitled “Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce: Women, Underrepresented Minorities, and their [Science and Engineering] Careers,” the New York Times reports.

http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=8842

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§It's time for a womyn's political party

by Voltairine

Wed, Jan 19, 2005 3:54PM

Nothing else will work except a womyn's political arm with a grassroot militant movement. We have been marching for a century. We got the vote but we're going nowhere. At every turn the right wing wants to put us back on our knees to beg for crumbs. We need to take power; its our turn now!

Womyn need to dismantle the patriarchal system NOW, to save the planet, to save the children, to stop the insane military complex.

Why are all those intelligent intellectual womyn begging to be accepted by the universities knowing very well that the institution is part and parcel of everything that oppresses us?

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§GPAC Decries Harvard President's Remarks

by Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC)

Fri, Jan 28, 2005 9:27PM

GPAC Decries Harvard President's Remarks

Date: 18-Jan-2005

~ Summers Suggests 'Innate Differences' Cause Fewer Women to Succeed in Math, Science ~

WASHINGTON (January 18, 2005) The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) today decried Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers' comments at Friday's National Bureau of Economic Research conference which suggested that biological differences could be one reason why women have less success in mathematics and the sciences.

Summers used the example of his own daughter who had been given two toy trucks to play with in an attempt at gender-neutral parenting, yet named them "daddy truck" and "baby truck."

"It is essential that every child – boy or girl – grows up exploring all their talents and skills, regardless of whether it fits out-dated notions about what boys do or what girls are supposed to be good at. It is outrageous that the head of one of the country's foremost colleges is busy underscoring these old stereotypes," said GenderPAC Youth Program Coordinator Kristin Effland.

The controversial keynote caught the attention of Nancy Hopkins, a Harvard alumna and MIT professor of biology who walked out of the presentation. University of California, Santa Cruz chancellor-designate Denice Denton described Summers' talk as, "lecturing pompously [to] this room full of the country's most accomplished scholars on women's issues in science and engineering, and...saying things we had refuted in the first half of the day."

Summers defended his comments as being meant "in the spirit of academic inquiry," adding that he was voicing a variety of views based on scholarly work and not necessarily his own opinions. He had already been under fire for a decline in senior job offers from Harvard made to women.

"Maybe it is time for President Summers to recognize that girls and boys can be good at math and science and play house and take care of pretend 'babies,'" continued Effland. "It's not an either-or choice, as moms and dads who balance work and family every day already know."

The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) is the national advocacy organization working to end discrimination and violence caused by gender stereotypes. To join today, visit us at http://www.gpac.org/join.

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