Larry Summers and the women in science debate
I have been meaning to write something on this topic for quite some time now, but just never found the time (or energy) to actually research it some more to make sure what I’m saying is somewhat based on facts. Moreover, I wasn’t really sure how to exactly present my views so as to not be pegged “anti-liberal,” or as a “woman-hater,” or worse, “accepting of societal oppression.” The latter only makes sense in the context that being a woman, if I assert anything against feminazi ideas, then I am simply sitting back and accepting the oppression that society imposes on me and other women like me, discouraging us from science and math.
For those of you who are curious, the full text of Larry Summer’s speech is available for reading on Harvard’s website. The derision of Larry Summers’ speech following the event is, while not entirely uncalled for, rather incorrect. I only say this from the perspective that his speech was the first time I have ever heard anyone of his position come right out and state the REAL current views as is, with no euphemisms and not interlaced with political correctness. THAT IS REFRESHING. Whether or not he should have done this, consciously or otherwise, is topic for another debate. The fact remains however, that Larry Summers didn’t try to gloss over the truth. He told it like it is.
Why are the percentages of women faculty at institutes of higher learning so vastly different from the percentages of women in graduate school studying these fields? While I am not willing to concede that women are less likely than men to have IQ levels 5 standard deviations above the mean, I do see science and engineering as a field that is dominated by men because women just aren’t as interested. I think there is truth to the story that Larry Summers tells about his daughters’ inherent nursing/familial instincts, and this truth is prevalent throughtout all society. Sure there are women out there who are interested in science and engineering, myself included, but these women are in the minority. Being in the minority doesn’t make us automatically discriminated against. There are fewer girls in science and math because fewer girls like science and math.
I think my biggest criticism about Larry Summers’ speech is to question whether or not this was the correct forum for him to have given a speech as he did. He was invited as a speaker at the NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce. He should have known better than to use this as the setting for a provocative speech laying out ideas that are far from being politically correct and far from formidable to the audience whom he was addressing. Perhaps he was a bit too extreme in his tactics and word choice, but in the end, I don’t think he was as far from the truth as the liberal media made him out to be. The most important thing that he addressed in his speech was that women tended to value family more than career as a whole, and that if you looked at women in positions of high leadership such as faculty and/or corporate managers, they are disporportionally unmarried or without children. So before we complain that universities are not doing enough to hire female faculty, perhaps we should take a look at the way that jobs in America are fundamentally set up and question whether or not we should all reduce the demands of a supposed “40 hours a week” job that we all know no longer exists.
There are a lot of ideas and issues that I want to talk about, but there just isn’t space for it. I question Larry Summers’ sanity in tackling such an issue at a forum for diversity. However, I admire his courage to say what is on his mind without hiding behind a wall of pretense that is political correctness. Perhaps I will write more on the actual debate about women in science in a later entry …