Do you have a problem with Harvard U.'s President's remarks?

[BeerMoney]

link to article. (http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/01/19/harvard_womens_group_rips_summers/)

The president of harvard said a possibility why there are few tenured faculty in hard sciences could possibly be to inherently lower abilities.. What are your thoughts?

[Oski]

[ QUOTE ]
In his talk Friday at a conference on women and minorities in science and engineering, held at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Summers listed three possible explanations for the small number of women who excel at elite levels of science and engineering. He said he was deliberately being provocative, as he was asked to do by the organizers, and relying on the scholarship that was assembled for the conference rather than offering his own conclusions.


His first point was that women with children are often unwilling or unable to work 80-hour weeks. His second point was that in math and science tests, more males earn the very top scores, as well as the very bottom scores. He said that while no one knew why, "research in behavioral genetics is showing that things people attributed to socialization" might actually have a biological basis -- and that the issue needed to be studied further.


Several participants said that in making his second point, Summers suggested that women might not have the same "innate ability" or "natural ability" as men.

Summers' third point was about discrimination, and he said it was not clear that discrimination played a significant role in the shortage of women teaching science and engineering at top universities. However, he concluded by emphasizing that Harvard was taking many steps to boost diversity.


[/ QUOTE ]

Obviously, there is a perceived shortage of women professors for math/science at Harvard. Apparently, all things otherwise being equal, many believe there should be more women math/science professors.

Summers was asked to address this situation at an organized conference.

His "points" seem to merely highlight the "problem" and seem to probe possible solutions. That's it. It does not seem to be the case that this guy went off course with his own personal agenda.

I have no problem with his speech or suggestions. To merely suggest that women may not possess the same abilities as men in certain disciplines is just that ... its a path of inquiry.

1. We beliive we have a problem: "We believe that more women should be on the math/science faculty."

2. Possible causes of Problem: "X" "Y" "Z"

3. Solution: Involves dealing with a combination of the identified causes "X" "Y" "Z"

* If the causes are not identified, it seems likely, Harvard will be having the same conference 25 years' from now.