The Summers of Our Discontent - Possible Obama Pick Angers Women
Tuesday November 11, 2008
Remember Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard who said that innate differences between men and women could be one of the reasons why women succeed far less than men in math and science careers?
He has been under consideration for a position in the Obama administration as secretary of the treasury.
Veronica Arreola is the assistant director of the Center for Research on Women and Gender and the director of the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and she says she's president of the Larry Summers Fan Club.
In case you didn't get it, she meant this tongue in cheek and explains in a commentary for the Women's Media Center why the appointment of Summers to an Obama cabinet would be a big mistake.
Related article: Women and Science - Why the Math and Science Gender Gap?
Comments
Linda,
Are you saying it’s not possible that innate differences between the sexes explain the differences in performance and therefore that we sholdn’t have summers guide our country’s financial future? Summers didn’t ever say he thought this was the only explanation- he said he thought it was a possible explanation, among others (second on his list of 3 likely explanations). Isn’t it rather unscientific of us as women to flat-out reject a potential hypothesis (and the person putting it on the table) just because we don’t like where it’s going? He may in the end be proven wrong, but this sort of backlash against him for his comments is not in the spirit of scientific debate which he was looking to foster. Rather than blacklisting those with whom we disagree, we should engage in reasoned, fact based, debate. In this way we would convince others that we are right, rather than simply showing our ability to react emotionally to things we don’t like.
While Summers does have a habit of saying things which may be politically incorrect, he’s brilliant and a straight shooter, and good at what he does. When Obama’s looking for someone to pander to special interests, he shouldn’t nominate Summers. But for Secretary of the Treasury, the man is imminently qualified.
For anyone who’s interested in reading Summers’ comments on this subject from the controvertial speech a few years ago, here’s the transcript: http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2005/nber.html
Always an adocate of women’s rights, but also of promoting a level-headed search for truth,
Danielle
Danielle, if you read carefully, I am not passing judgment on Summers personally but have highlighted the words of Veronica Arreola, who is in a better position to understand the full impact of Summers’ comments.
Also, I provided a link to a Boston Globe article which I’ll excerpt below:
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.” Five other participants reached by the Globe, including Denice D. Denton, chancellor designate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, also said they were deeply offended, while four other attendees said they were not….
The five other women who were offended by Summers’ speech also argued that their objections were based on research that indicates women do perform at the highest levels when given the same opportunities and encouragement as men.
‘’Here was this economist lecturing pompously [to] this room full of the country’s most accomplished scholars on women’s issues in science and engineering, and he kept saying things we had refuted in the first half of the day,” said Denton, the outgoing dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. Next month, Denton will become the new head of UC Santa Cruz.
Besides Hopkins and Denton, the participants who criticized Summers to a Globe reporter were Anne C. Petersen, former deputy director of the National Science Foundation; Catherine Didion, former executive director of the Association for Women in Science; Donna J. Nelson, chemistry professor at the University of Oklahoma; and Sheila Tobias, a feminist author and proponent of women in science.
In many ways, Summers is well-qualified to serve as secretary of the treasury. But for some women, appointing him would be akin to appointing George Wallace to a cabinet position. A racist man would not have served the best interests of a nation torn apart by civil unrest in the 1960s. Likewise, in an Obama administration, an individual who holds these views of women may not be the best choice if one considers the larger picture.
I am not a woman who has ever sought a career in the fields of science and math. So I defer to the women cited in the Boston Globe article. They had real concerns about his statements, and I cannot find fault with what these women have to say, though I understand your point and believe it is well-taken.
Linda…
George Wallace? That’s a bit a hyperbolic comparison. As far as I know Summers has never actively instituted or governed over any policy or belief that for one moment blocked access and equal rights and opportunities to women. He made an “interesting” theory.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar… and a bore is just a bore. With the palace of the economy crashing around us, which has the potential of affecting women’s and family issues is far more realistic terms than the elitist halls of men and women who think far too much even for intellectuals. do you really want to throw out someone who may have the keys to the door?
One of the best things of this whole direction Obama seems to be taking the country is is the idea that everyone has to begin to drop all their old baggage and nonsense and move forward.
Danielle, I think the search for truth also has to include the search for discrimination and its effects. Right now, the more likely truth is that women have been victims of gender discrimination in the academic arena:
http://spectrum.mit.edu/issue/2004-spring/changing-lives/
We *know* that discrimination hurts women as well as other disempowered groups. Instead of wasting our time and resources investigating whether women are somehow inherently inferior, we should address discrimination as a very real problem.
Actually, Whiteknyght, from that same Boston Globe article is evidence that Summers actually has (in your words) “actively instituted or governed over any policy or belief that for one moment blocked access and equal rights and opportunities to women.” Here’s what the Globe found after covering his controversial speech:
However, the problem of women in academia is one that Summers is confronting in his role as university president. The percentage of tenured job offers made to women by the university’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences has dropped dramatically since Summers took office, prompting vigorous complaints from many of Harvard’s senior female professors.
Summers has called last year’s results, when only four of 32 tenured job offers went to women, unacceptable and promised to work on the problem. However, some Harvard professors have questioned his commitment to the issue.
If he were the only one on Earth holding the magic key to the economic crisis, the argument would be different. But between his statement disregarding women’s abilities, his track record at Harvard (which appears less than warm toward women’s advancement) and his flap with Cornel West, questioning his possible appointment seems more than appropriate.
He has already served as treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. Do we truly need to recycle the old guard into the new Obama administration? What happened to change we can believe in?
Point taken… but still… tenured jobs at Harvard? Not to go Sarah Palin (god forbid), but it seems examples and discussions about glass ceilings, pay equity, etc too often all seems to filter around the upper crust of American society and intelligencia … people who probably can take care of themselves. What I see around me everyday are women and men without enough resources for both heat and home, choosing between medicine for their kids and the light bill, more and more standing in lines their pride never thought they’d find themselves in. The other America the suits and pantsuits never really bother with.