Summers' time, and he's not livin' easy.
Well, the academic who gave the speech I mentioned earlier this week has recanted!! There was such an outcry that he has published this - from the SMH.
"The president of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, has released a lengthy written apology, admitting he was wrong to suggest women do not have the same natural ability in maths and sciences as men.
In his third and most repentant statement this week, the former treasury secretary to Bill Clinton sought to make amends to faculty not just at Harvard but across the country who were offended by his remarks at a conference last Friday.
"I deeply regret the impact of my comments and apologise for not having weighed them more carefully," he said in a letter posted on his website. "I was wrong to have spoken in a way that has resulted in an unintended signal of discouragement to talented girls and women."
Dr Summers had told the private conference on the position of women and minorities in science and engineering that women's reluctance to work long hours because of child-care responsibilities was behind them not performing as well in the sciences. He also said boys outperform girls on high school science and maths scores because of genetic difference. As an example, he told the conference about giving his daughter two trucks. She treated them like dolls, and named them mummy and daddy trucks, he said.
In his most recent statement, Dr Summers said the human potential to excel in science is not dictated by gender, as evidenced by the distinguished careers of many women scientists.
He spoke of having learned much in recent days from emails and calls that he said "made vivid the very real barriers faced by women in pursuing scientific and other academic careers"."
It is like the man who rang up and blasted women who use the appellation 'Ms'. He said they should all go back to the 1950s and , basically, be grateful. I wish for him to wake up one day and find himself a young woman in the 1950s with ambitions and goals and see how he would like it. I like being a Ms. I am far too old now to be a Miss, and Mrs is my mother's name. Men don't apparently feel the need to signal their marital status all the time, so why should I? I am quite happy for other women to be a Miss or Mrs, but it's just not for me.
"The president of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, has released a lengthy written apology, admitting he was wrong to suggest women do not have the same natural ability in maths and sciences as men.
In his third and most repentant statement this week, the former treasury secretary to Bill Clinton sought to make amends to faculty not just at Harvard but across the country who were offended by his remarks at a conference last Friday.
"I deeply regret the impact of my comments and apologise for not having weighed them more carefully," he said in a letter posted on his website. "I was wrong to have spoken in a way that has resulted in an unintended signal of discouragement to talented girls and women."
Dr Summers had told the private conference on the position of women and minorities in science and engineering that women's reluctance to work long hours because of child-care responsibilities was behind them not performing as well in the sciences. He also said boys outperform girls on high school science and maths scores because of genetic difference. As an example, he told the conference about giving his daughter two trucks. She treated them like dolls, and named them mummy and daddy trucks, he said.
In his most recent statement, Dr Summers said the human potential to excel in science is not dictated by gender, as evidenced by the distinguished careers of many women scientists.
He spoke of having learned much in recent days from emails and calls that he said "made vivid the very real barriers faced by women in pursuing scientific and other academic careers"."
It is like the man who rang up and blasted women who use the appellation 'Ms'. He said they should all go back to the 1950s and , basically, be grateful. I wish for him to wake up one day and find himself a young woman in the 1950s with ambitions and goals and see how he would like it. I like being a Ms. I am far too old now to be a Miss, and Mrs is my mother's name. Men don't apparently feel the need to signal their marital status all the time, so why should I? I am quite happy for other women to be a Miss or Mrs, but it's just not for me.
posted by 2paw @ 1/22/2005 03:31:00 pm
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