Harvard Reaches Out to Women Scientists

The PC Army marches on.

Harvard Says It Will Spend $50 Million Over Next Decade to Support Women Scientists, Faculty
By JUSTIN POPE
The Associated Press

May. 16, 2005 - Harvard President Lawrence Summers committed his university Monday to spending $50 million over the next decade on a range of programs from mentoring to child care to late-night transport aimed at improving the climate for women scientists, many of whom were angered by his remarks that questioned female aptitude for top-level math and science.

Summers said he would implement recommendations made by two committees he appointed in February, at the height of the outcry over his remarks at an academic conference a month earlier. The recommendations range from better advising for students to earmarking money for developing a more diverse faculty.

They also call for graduate students in the sciences to be instructed on gender bias before they are given teaching assignments.

“Universities like Harvard were designed a long time ago, in many respects, by men and for men,” Summers said during a news conference call. “To fully succeed on these issues we’re going to have to address issues of culture.”

Summers said he would begin working immediately on some of the initiatives, including the appointment of a senior administrator on faculty diversity something he had already endorsed. But he also said details of many of the proposals remained to be worked out.

“I guess the question is, ‘Is there really going to be some meat to this or is it all window-dressing?’” said Mary Waters, the chair of Harvard’s sociology department and an outspoken critic of Summers.

At a conference in January at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Summers said that innate differences in ability between the genders may partly explain why fewer women are in the pipeline for top science jobs.

Summers apologized repeatedly for his remarks, and appointed the two task forces one on women at Harvard, one on women in science more generally though many academics, alumni and students defended him.

On Harvard’s campus in Cambridge, the controversy became part of a more general debate about Summers’ leadership style, which supporters call bold but critics say is blunt and imperious.

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the central body of the university, passed a symbolic no-confidence vote in Summers’ leadership in March.

Among the recommendations are funding for departments to hire outstanding scholars even if there is no departmental opening. But Harvard administrators denied the university would pursue “affirmative action hires” who were not up to standards.

“We’re not going to change or lower any of the standards that exist here at Harvard,” Summers said.

Harvard officials described the recommendations as touching on the pipeline of scientific talent at various points along the way from undergraduate research to mentoring for graduate students and junior faculty and said their implementation would benefit the entire university, not just women.

But one outside observer said Harvard remains far from path-breaking on the topic of nurturing women scientists and faculty generally.

“Mostly I see it as catching up,” said Elizabeth Ivey, former president of the University of Hartford and president of the Association for Women in Science. “Much of what they’re talking about has been done at other institutions for 30 or 40 years.”

On the Net:

http://www.president.harvard.edu/

Posted by Phil Peterson on Monday, May 16, 2005 at 06:04 PM in Genetics & Human Bio-Diversity
Comments (6) | Tell a friend

Comments:

Posted by Geoff Beck on May 16, 2005, 10:03 PM | #

Looks like this was just a trick by Summers to advance the feminist agenda. If he would’ve kept his mouth shut less damage would’ve been done.

All universities must be shutdown for 3 generations for the welfare of the nation.

Posted by Andrew L on May 17, 2005, 12:00 AM | #

I have a sister inlaw, who is A Doctor, in Dentistry, (spare time),and a Maxi Facial Surgeon as a full time, PhD, and 8 publications, The funny thing about her is, She is Human, and if you did not know her , you would not know she was a Professor,Mind you a surgery at the other end of the house is a dead giveaway,(Bad Choice of words) There is no standard drop from her perspictive, and she does agree that Men, Naturally have more mental abillity in Math, Science and Physics, and that is from a 7 step Professor, What sort of scientific resaults are we going to be talking about in the future. Not very good, but compared to the rest of society, the demasculated morons have created, we may well be back in Caves in another 50 years,and speaking Arabic. Usama wun.I realise Geoff, in your case Spanish, but the Arabs will give them a good run for their Booty.

Posted by Braveheart on May 17, 2005, 03:13 AM | #

I always heard that ladies are, in a genetic way, better in communicating and thus better fit for sociology for instance than for maths and likewise (top) science. This has nothing to do with culture. But what a pity that this Summers now feels the necessity to show PCness to keep his job.

Nevertheless he has one advantage to live in the USA. In Belgium he would end in jail because of his “discriminatory” remarks, for in Belgium the PC blah is the official ideology.

Flanders,

Posted by Guessedworker on May 17, 2005, 07:07 AM | #

Readers may be interested in the link below to a debate held last month between two Harvard Profs, Steven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke.

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/debate05/debate05_index.html

Posted by John S Bolton on May 17, 2005, 09:06 PM | #

Harvard appeases the soviet feminists again. The diversity got cut in too; another victory for the antimerit activists against civilization at one of its supposed strongholds. They give us malice where loyalty to civilization should be. It is because the left has no ability to exercise moral leadership, the wretched savages.

Posted by ummjack on May 19, 2005, 05:01 PM | #

I agree with the first comment. This was probably all entirely staged.

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