NOW Calls for Resignation of Harvard's President

[nclib]

NOW Calls for Resignation of Harvard University's President

January 20, 2005

The National Organization for Women calls for the resignation of Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, who has failed to lead the prominent (and previously all-male) university toward true inclusion of women. His recent comments generated a firestorm of response from Harvard/Radcliffe women who were outraged that he would embarrass Harvard with such a public demonstration of sexism and ignorance.

"Summers' suggestion that women are inferior to men in their ability to excel at math and science is more than an example of personal sexism, it is a clue to why women have not been more fully accepted and integrated into the tenured faculty at Harvard since he has been president," said NOW President Kim Gandy. According to reports, the number of female faculty receiving tenure has declined over the past four years — down to just four of the last 32 tenure offers in the school's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

"Harvard University holds itself out as the pinnacle of higher education in this country," said Gandy. "Such an esteemed institution should set a standard for other colleges and universities — a standard that Lawrence Summers appears unable to maintain."

Nearly a week after his comments — made at a National Bureau of Economic Research conference on women and people of color in science and engineering — Summers finally issued a carefully-worded apology, in which he regretted the impact of his statements. However, the damage will persist, as will the questions about his true commitment to inclusion, as long as he remains a leader in higher education.

"The women of Harvard — professors, students and alums — merit more than a belated and defensive 'I'm sorry,'" said Gandy. "How can they trust that Summers is committed to equality for women when he doesn't seem to believe that discrimination exists?"

In Summers' Jan. 14 remarks, he proposed that innate genetic differences between the sexes may be one explanation for why fewer women succeed in math and science careers. NOW applauds the women who challenged his comments at the conference and afterward. We thank the hundreds (if not thousands) of women who have written to newspapers and to Summers directly to set him straight about the challenges that face women in still-non-traditional fields.

"The notion that women are innately inferior to men is simply archaic," said Gandy. "For decades, women have been making dramatic advances in science and technology fields while negotiating a minefield of gender stereotypes and obstacles created by ignorance. It has been a rocky road, but women have risen to the challenge. It's time to remove the barriers, and one of them is Lawrence Summers."

NOW will be watching Harvard University. Will Harvard encourage women as students in the "hard" sciences, promote more women in faculty positions, and step up the recruitment of women for teaching positions in math and science departments? Or will Harvard be thwarted in achieving these goals with Summers at the helm?

"Apologies are not enough," said Gandy. "Summers must go, and Harvard must start with a clean slate."

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What do you guys think?

[Gabu]

I am sick and tired of everyone calling for an official's freaking resignation the moment that official makes one comment that maybe he shouldn't have made.  What Summers said was dumb; I don't dispute that, but calling for his resignation is a bit much.

[Jake]

Oooo, Liberals suppresing free speech.

[dazzleman]

If NOW doesn't like this guy, that's reason enough for me to rally behind him.

Political correctness has reached the point of absurdity.  Instead of always moaning about how disadvantaged women are in the educational arena, maybe we should be more concerned about how outnumbered men are on college campuses these days.

I know it's a good thing for guys who want to get laid, so not too many men are complaining about it, but it's a bad sign that there are 130 women for every 100 men in college today.

I think to an extent Summers is right, in that men tend to gravitate toward certain disciplines, and women to others.  There's not necessarily anything wrong with this, and it probably is innate to some extent.  Women are less interested than men in math and science, while men are less interested than women in literature and humanities.  There's nothing wrong with saying it.

Of course, if Summers had something strongly anti-male, NOW would have had no problem with that whatsoever.  They probably would have applauded.

[Gabu]

I think to an extend Summers is right, in that men tend to gravitate toward certain disciplines, and women to others.  There's not necessarily anything wrong with this, and it probably is innate to some extent.  Women are less interested than men in math and science, while men are less interested than women in literature and humanities.  There's nothing wrong with saying it.

As I understand it, Summers was saying that women are innately worse at math and science than men, which is quite different than what you said.  What Summers said was simply false; what you said is simply a fact.

Nevertheless, I basically agree with the rest of your post, however.

[dazzleman]

I think to an extend Summers is right, in that men tend to gravitate toward certain disciplines, and women to others.  There's not necessarily anything wrong with this, and it probably is innate to some extent.  Women are less interested than men in math and science, while men are less interested than women in literature and humanities.  There's nothing wrong with saying it.

As I understand it, Summers was saying that women are innately worse at math and science than men, which is quite different than what you said.  What Summers said was simply false; what you said is simply a fact.

Nevertheless, I basically agree with the rest of your post, however.

I think that what I said is probably what Summers meant.  I can't believe that he really meant to say that women were innately inferior in those disciplines.  Sometimes, people say things and it just comes out wrong, and I agree that we ought to stop being so sensitive about it.

If he had said that men were inferior at language skills, feminist groups like NOW would applaud that, and showcase it as proof of female superiority.  They would use it to argue that women should be favored over men.  So I find their stance ridiculously hypocritical.

[PBrunsel]

Who really listens to NOW anyway?

[Gabu]

I think that what I said is probably what Summers meant.  I can't believe that he really meant to say that women were innately inferior in those disciplines.  Sometimes, people say things and it just comes out wrong, and I agree that we ought to stop being so sensitive about it.

Well, yes, we'll never know.  What you say is definitely possible.

If he had said that men were inferior at language skills, feminist groups like NOW would applaud that, and showcase it as proof of female superiority.  They would use it to argue that women should be favored over men.  So I find their stance ridiculously hypocritical.

I would agree with this.  See my comments in that topic about feminists.

[dazzleman]

Who really listens to NOW anyway?

Democratic politicians.

[Jake]

Who really listens to NOW anyway?

~Every woman on the face of this planet~

[Cashcow]

Who really listens to NOW anyway?

~Every woman on the face of this planet~

That's not sexist at all!

I hope you get married and your wife leaves you while pregnant

[muon2]

Not that I agree with NOW, but I can only share some data from my own department of physics. Our current, recently elected, department chair is a woman, as was the runner-up for the post. Two out of two of the graduate students working for me towards their advanced degrees are female.

The overall percantage of female physicists is certainly less than 50%, but there seems to be plenty of opportuninty at my institution. In the end that's what we should do. Provide opportunity, and let the best excel.

[WalterMitty]

i think lawrence summers is a great man.

i hate to see him tripping all over himself and apologizing to that crowd, though. 

[J. J.]

I think to an extend Summers is right, in that men tend to gravitate toward certain disciplines, and women to others.  There's not necessarily anything wrong with this, and it probably is innate to some extent.  Women are less interested than men in math and science, while men are less interested than women in literature and humanities.  There's nothing wrong with saying it.

As I understand it, Summers was saying that women are innately worse at math and science than men, which is quite different than what you said.  What Summers said was simply false; what you said is simply a fact.

Nevertheless, I basically agree with the rest of your post, however.

Summers was trying to provoke debate on the causes of the disparity.  I see nothing wrong in that.

Maybe he should call on NOW to disband.

[A18]

I see nothing wrong with what the guy said.

[Gabu]

Summers was trying to provoke debate on the causes of the disparity.  I see nothing wrong in that.

I suppose in re-reading it that it does say he "proposed" the idea, rather than asserting it.

Well, I don't really know, besides the fact that whatever the case, NOW has grossly overreacted (as usual).

[The Duke]

What was the exact quote?  I can't find it on google.  All I find is leftist journalists summarizing the quote and characterizing it as NOW did, but you'll notice te quote doesn't appear in the story nclib posted either.

Until I see the quote in context, I can't comment.

[Blue Rectangle]

What was the exact quote?  I can't find it on google.  All I find is leftist journalists summarizing the quote and characterizing it as NOW did, but you'll notice te quote doesn't appear in the story nclib posted either.

Until I see the quote in context, I can't comment.

An exact quote is not available.  I read that the media did not attend the speech and that he has not released a transcript or recording of the speech.

One of Summers' comments was that women in academia have difficulty advancing due to pregnancy interrupting their career.  In private industry, a woman can interrupt her work to have a child with little fear that it will cost her her career goals.  This is even true in male-dominated fields like engineering and industries like defense contracting.  A tenure-track female professor who takes time off her associate professorship for maternity leave has just kissed her shot at tenure goodbye.  In many ways, "enlightened" academia is decades behind the rest of society.  NOW would be better off attacking the institution, rather than one man.

[The Duke]

So NOW has called for the man's resignation, when all comments about his speech are based purely on specualtion?  Wat a ing joke.

[Gabu]

What was the exact quote?  I can't find it on google.  All I find is leftist journalists summarizing the quote and characterizing it as NOW did, but you'll notice te quote doesn't appear in the story nclib posted either.

Until I see the quote in context, I can't comment.

I can't find the exact quote, but here are two articles from Harvard's newspaper that make a reference to it:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=505396
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=505387

and here is the text of Summers' apology letter:

http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2005/womensci.html

but I, too, cannot find the actual quote anywhere.  We'll have to go with what we can find.

[Rob]

What a ridiculous situation. But it's not surprising- things like that happen all the time.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

If Summers' said what he is alledged to have said (how the Beeb and the Grauniad reported it anyways) he's wrong and should apologise.

But resign?

Isn't it more than just a little hypocritical of a group like NOW to whine about this when plenty of their members have said the same sort of thing in reverse?

Bah. Knock both side's heads together.

[Gabu]

Isn't it more than just a little hypocritical of a group like NOW to whine about this when plenty of their members have said the same sort of thing in reverse?

No, you see, when men bash women, that's sexism, but when women bash men, that's empowerment.

[Blerpiez]

Oooo, Liberals suppresing free speech.

No, suppressing free speech would be calling for his arrest.  These people are asking him to personally take responsibility for his actions.

[Jake]

Oooo, Liberals suppresing free speech.

No, suppressing free speech would be calling for his arrest.  These people are asking him to personally take responsibility for his actions.

We don't know what he said.  They are attacking him for *maybe* saying these things.  Calling for someones resignation is suppressing their free speech.  If he is fired, he lost his job because he expressed himself.