Poor Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers is still chomping on the mud over his remark that men’s and women’s innate abilities might have something to do with the underrepresentation of women on university mathematics and science faculties.
Summers has apologized and apologized and apologized–but those feminist ideologues who claimed to have been made “sick” by his remark are having none of it. So now Summers has tried a new groveling tack: establishing two separate task forces designed to boost the hiring of promotion of women at Harvard, especially in science and engineering (thanks for the lead, Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review Online).
Summers also promises essentially to re-establish the office of dean for affirmative action, a post that Harvard under his lead abolished a couple of years ago. The office will have a trendy new “gender diversity” name, however.
Well, maybe that will improve the health of the female academics ’round the world who have been tormenting Summers the way the harpies in Greek mythology used to torment the dead. But I wouldn’t count on improved rad-fem relations if I were you, Larry. As the Boston Globe reports:
“Some Harvard professors have questioned the seriousness of this undertaking, given that Summers created it only after his remarks drew unflattering international attention and sparked worry that they would deter women from taking jobs at Harvard.”
What I love about this latest development is this sentence in the Globe’s story:
“[Task force leaders Evelynn M.] Hammonds and [Barbara J.] Grosz said the task force discussion would not be ponderous or theoretical.”
Yeah, math is hard.
By the way, if you’re in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 9, don’t miss our upcoming panel discussion: Did Larry Summers Say That? IWF president Nancy Pfotenhauer will moderate, and the panelists will include Linda Chavez, Dr. Paul McHugh, Lisa Schiffren, and Diana West.