Larry Summers: Turning Back the Clock


We may never know what Harvard president, Larry Summers, told his distinguished and learned audience last week about possible gender-based science proclivities. We can say for sure, however, that he has done science—and indeed his own institution—a grave disservice. My blunt take: we do not know what makes a good scientist, and it is impossible to use existing statistics to gauge gender differences.

[Update, Feb. 18, 2005: apparently, the "off-the-record" remarks were not entirely "off-the-record". They were in fact, "recorded" on some sort of tape recorder. Using this off-the-record record, the full transcript was made available by Harvard. Since they have the Q&A that followed, one can assume that Summers' speech is what he said, rather than what he had prepared. Either way, it is now clear to the whole world that the president of Harvard University has no capacity whatsoever to speak in clear language that cannot be misinterpreted.]

If he had suggested that blacks might be genetically unsuited for science, he'd be packing his bags already. Instead, Harvard president, Larry Summers, let one slip about women—also known as "the 'minority' that's OK to riff on." This is a very bad sign, indeed, as it means that those in power are even starting to forget how to pretend that minorities and women are equals.

There are several accounts of the top-secret, off-the-record remarks in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Slate. (By the way, since when are conferences off the record? I mean isn't that why Gordon conferences are unusual?)

There are well-documented physiological and neuroanatomical differences between male and female humans, as there surely are between male and female wombats, tree shrews, and lemurs.

The Times article captures most of what I think (and, in fact, I deleted most of what I wrote after having read it in full). But I would just like to highlight one quote by UCSB economist Dr. Catherine Weinberger:

Surveying a representative population of working scientists and engineers, Dr. Weinberger has discovered that the women were likelier than the men to have very high test scores. "Women are more cautious about entering these professions unless they have very high scores to begin with," she said.

And why is that? Could it that women have been hearing the kind of bull that Larry Summers is spewing their whole lives? Unlike boys, girls have to earn every compliment they get.

My wife, a gifted physicist, has a very poorly developed sense of self-evaluation and she constantly relies on external approval. I think that she is a perfect example of what happens to women who pass through our system.

Harlem: A Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun
Or fester like a sore—

And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—

Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

–Langston Hughes

Posted: Mon - January 24, 2005 at 12:08 AM         |

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