Is Larry Summers entitled to his opinion?

[Silverhair]

For those who haven't heard of him, here is what the flap is all about. Larry Summers is President of Harvard University. He commented that "... maybe gender bias alone does not explain why so few women reach the highest levels of math and science research. Maybe men are just innately better at abstract, mathematical thinking." (Quote is from The Week Magazine, Jan 28, 2005 issue, page 16.)

You can do a google and find lots of hits on blogs that are angry at him. Donations have been withheld from Harvard, and some are crying for his resignation, even though he has even apologized and said that he misspoke.

So, how does Churchill's freedom of speech compare to Summer's?

I, of course, see no difference at all. Each should be free to speak, and must accept the predictable (Legal ones only, please) consequences of the passions that they may arouse.

Whether Summers ideas are right or wrong is NOT the point of this post.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Yes he is but the very obvious difference

Is that ONE is in a TEACHING position and the other is in a HIRING position and therefore, rightfully, held to a higher standard, especially when there seems to be a corollary between hiring of women academics at his institution and his musings.

[AP]

2. Summers is, esentially, the CEO of a company with many women employees

He has basically admitted that he thinks that women employees of his company might not EVER be as smart as the men doing the same jobs.

As president, I believe that he makes the final decision on who gets promoted and who doesn't and what kind of pay packages they get.

And I'm not even going to start talking about what this says about how he thinks of his customers -- ie, half his student body who are women.

This is not a free speech issue (ie, it's not about whether the goverment can tell you what to think and say). It's about his management skills and his legitimacy now as captain of that ship.

[sendero]

3. Yeah..

... he should be fired for saying what is obviously and a scientifically proven FACT, that testosterone and estrogen have mental effects and men and women are IN FACT different beyond the obvious differences.

When someone in a position of power advocates the abridgement of someone's rights based on their gender or race, there is a problem.

That is not what this was.

[poe]

4. A few sage words from larry summers

"the logic in dumping first world waste in third world countries is impeccable in an economic sense, as most third world nations are vastly underpolluted."
that's not the precise quote but close. he said this when he was king of the world bank or at least prince, it is an easy quote to find as there is now an annual lawrence summers award given out by one of the major enviro groups to whoever makes the most truthful and wretched comment about first world exploitation practices.

[AngryAmish]

5. Silence on this issue must be enforced

Larry Summers must not inquire into this field. He should be fired. There cannot be any evidence of biological differences between men and women somehow effecting the thought process. He may not speak.

[AP]

6. How would you feel if your boss -- an economist -- said

that you were incapable of reaching the top of your profession because of biology (an area in which your boss had no formal training)?

[LoZoccolo]

8. I would try to reach the top of my profession.

What the Harvard guy said was not prescriptive. It wasn't even a statement, it was a hypothesis.

[AP]

9. The president ultimately approves the tenure decisisons and

must approve salaries and any exceptional requests or special deals made to attract top faculty.

Basically, he has admitted that when he sees one of these requests or deals or offers for a woman being considered by a science or math department, he might not imagine that her career is as promissing as a man's with the same resume at that point in their careers because of biological factors. And he isn't even a biologist!!!!

If women employees now have a problem with him, I totally appreciate their concerns.

[Greybnk48]

12. And you would have to be twice as good as the men

to overcome the built in bias. And if your smarts were apparent you would be immediately labeled a bitch or a Lesbian or both. Or worse yet your apparent success would be attributed to affirmative action.


President Kennedy admitted he chose a female Dr. because she would have had to be twice as smart as the men to get through med school.

[LoZoccolo]

13. Oh come on!

This is academia, not a construction site!

[AP]

15. How is Summer's statement much different from...

...a boss on a construction site valuing women employees less because of biological differences?

Harvard actually isn't very different from construction site except that they apply intellectual labor, rather than manual labor. And now Summers -- the boss at the intellectual labor construction site -- says that women are, because of biology, unable to do the same work that men can do in certain fields.

[bemildred]

7. Sure, let him talk. nt

[journalist3072]

10. Summers

Of course he is entitled to his opinion. We all are. But that doesn't mean he's not an a*shole for having some of the opinions he has.

[jdj]

11. Come now. That is not an opinion.

Nowhere have I read about him saying "Smart women are scary to me."

"Intelligent broads are bitches", or "I think women are dumb."

Those are opinions.

I can't find a personal opinion in either of the two sentences you quoted, because like most men in a position like that, he's too much of a pussy (sorry, un-p.c.) to say what he really feels, so he couches it in terms of scientific speculation.

The truth is, scientific studies are baseless in a culture without gender parity. Once we have parity (which humanity seems almost incapable of...we seem to always have to have a one-up, one-down system, regardless of who the "one" is) we will be able to sit down with all kinds of tests and scans and measurements and really explore this. Until then, we will have to conclude that the cultural conditioning that female children get, even if only subversively, that women are stupid, inferior, whores is actually effective.

[DefenseLawyer]

14. Don't fear ideas!

We on the left are the first to denounce the intolerant right for wanting to ban books or boycott tv shows or silence critics of the war. If someone espouses an idea we disagree with we should disprove it, not simply demand silence from the other point of view. Besides, the guy didn't even espouse an idea, he just posed a question, a possibility: he said "maybe". Well maybe a lot of things are true, maybe they aren't. Speculation doesn't scare me. Through the free flow of ideas, some speculation will be proven right, some will be resoundingly rejected. If it is shown that the guy has been unfair in his treatment of women, that is one thing, but let's not mimic the right by screaming "burn the heretic" when we hear an idea we don't agree with.