Unthought Through

TAS ^ | 1/20/2005 | R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

[Max Combined]

Harvard President Issues an Apology for Remarks

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&e=7&u=/latimests/harvardpresidentissuesanapologyforremarks

By Elizabeth Mehren Times Staff Writer

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers apologized late Wednesday for his remarks last week suggesting that innate differences might make women less capable of succeeding at math and science than men, and acknowledged that his comments sent "an unintended signal of discouragement to talented girls and women."

This is from the LA Times, so I will not post the entire article, but Summers has already backed down in the face of the weeping and wailing of all the women who do not want the truth to be expressed but instead demand the PC fiction.

[ladyinred]

but Summers has already backed down in the face of the weeping and wailing of all the women who do not want the truth to be expressed but instead demand the PC fiction.

Uh oh. Incoming.

[driftless]

Any libs reading this article and refusing to believe empirical evidence should read "Brain Sex" my Mohr and Jessel concerning the innate differences between the sexes. There are other books on the subject, but this is the best I've read. Dear libs, you can only keep your heads stuck up your er, uh, ahem sandbox for so long.

[Max Combined]

On another thread on this same topic I noticed a fellow who posted, saying that, "Women are much better than men at cooking and cleaning, including women, but that he did not take offense at that." He also did not take offense when women did not remember to leave the toilet seat up.

[cyborg]

The women who were complaining have advanced degrees in math and science. Why shouldn't they speak up?

[SolidSupplySide]

C'mon. What happened to Summers is not a threat to free speech. The government was not involved.

What happened to Summers is someone criticized him. Let's not be like liberals and equate criticism to censorship.

[Max Combined]

Speak up, sure.

By getting all emotional and saying they didn't know whether to throw up or pass out, just shows them in a bad light.

Do they have any data that supports their position? Or do they just demand that no one says anything that upsets them?

They have the degrees, now, what major discovery or advancement in the sciences or math have they made?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

They were actually bursting into tears. SHHH!

[Max Combined]

"Let's not be like liberals and equate criticism to censorship."

True, it is not censorship, it is political correctness.

[Max Combined]

WEEPING WOMEN IN THE IVORY TOWER
http://www.michellemalkin.com/

By Michelle Malkin · January 17, 2005 08:20 AM
Harvard University President Lawrence Summers gave a provocative talk last Friday on innate gender differences and the reasons for the dearth of female professors in science and engineering at elite universities.

According to the Boston Globe, the first point Summers touched on was the reluctance or inability of women who have children to work 80-hour weeks. The second point was that fewer girls than boys have top scores on science and math tests in late high school years. Summers' third point addressed discrimination. Summers noted that if discrimination was the main factor limiting the advancement of women in science and engineering, then a school that does not discriminate would gain an advantage by hiring away the top women who were discriminated against elsewhere.

Because that doesn't seem to be a widespread phenomenon, Summers said, according to the Globe, ''the real issue is the overall size of the pool, and it's less clear how much the size of the pool was held down by discrimination."

Summers made clear that he was simply throwing out theories, summarizing scholarly research, and not himself endorsing any particular hypothesis. So, how did women academics respond to a challenging intellectual discussion? By having a collective emotional snit fit unbecoming of any self-respecting representative of the ivory tower. From the Globe:

Nancy Hopkins, a biologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, walked out on Summers' talk, saying later that if she hadn't left, ''I would've either blacked out or thrown up."
If that is how Professor Hopkins is training her female students to respond to rigorous academic debate, the fewer of them the better.

[cyborg]

A better response would have been, "He has a right to his opinion. I know what I've done in my life and what I've achieved. That speaks for itself and what one person says isn't going to affect me one way or the other. " I do not know about their achievements, but if I was in their place, I would have had to say something.

[cyborg]

That's ridiculous. Crying? There are more important things to cry about.

[cyborg]

good article... pursuing advanced degrees takes time and money.

[Max Combined]

"He has a right to his opinion. I know what I've done in my life and what I've achieved. That speaks for itself and what one person says isn't going to affect me one way or the other."

When one is talking in general, what an individual does or does not do is immaterial.

Madam Curie was a great scientist, but that does not prove that women are not generally less able scientists, just as the fact that female Olympic athletes, who are more athletic than most men do not prove that women are less athletic than men or that the odd seven foot tall woman proves that women are not generally shorter than men.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Do the feminazi's know that? (What happened to Gloria Steinam and Patricia Ireland? No, really. WHO is the new voice of feminism? I haven't heard from her!)

[WindOracle]

Those hypocrits went to ground when Clinton did what they have told us all along was sexual descrimination. I think I saw Patricia Ireland on LinkTV a week or so ago... I tune in to Democracy Now for a good laugh now and then.

[az wildkitten]

Prof. Summers is screwed either way. I have only my own experience to base this on, but I have been blessed with an incredible understanding of all things science and mathmatic. I have nothing but an incredible respect for Newton, Aristotle and that German guy who's name escapes me. I topped out in math and science in high school and college, but I found my fulfillment as a Nurse. I have worked in Intensive Care, the O. R., Hospice and currently in Outpatient Surgery. Tomorrow I may decide to work in Psych, Peds, Admin, or who knows? Maybe I should have been a math teacher, I tutored many through, but it just didn't do it for me. Maybe women have the ability, but not the aptitude to spend their time in such a poorly personally rewarding area.

[secretagent]

I have a theory. The reduced corpus callosum in men forces them to harmonize their brain hemispheres more through external activity.

[Max Combined]

"that German guy who's name escapes me"

Hitler?