Newsflash: Lawrence Summers is a dick
posted by bitchphd
This is the kind of moment when I'm so pleased that I'm an anonymous academic blogger: Summers' remarks on women draw fire.
Others have pointed out (as does the article linked) the remarkable coincidence between Summers' apparent views of women's capacity (notwithstanding his attempts to backpedal) and the remarkable fact that tenured job offers to women at Harvard have dropped significantly. The article's full of hilarious little snarks like "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." Ya think?
This, however, is my favorite. Having said that his hypothesis is "based on . . . scholarly work," Summers goes on to offer this incredibly scholarly piece of evidence:
"In his talk, according to several participants, Summers also used as an example one of his daughters, who as a child was given two trucks in an effort at gender-neutral parenting. Yet she treated them almost like dolls, naming one of them ''daddy truck,' and one ''baby truck.'"
Well, I've got news for you, Larry. My son, whose father took him to see the first X-Prize launch, calls SpaceShipOne the "Mama Plane" and the "Baby Plane." Click on the link, you'll see why. So I think maybe a little more research needs to be done on this topic before your darling daughter--who I'm sure was raised in a completely non-sexist environment (not)--can really serve as definitive proof that girls can't do math and science.
Dumbass.
(Edited to add that PZ Myers, as usual, manages to be vitriolic *and* better spoken than I am, darn him.)
Others have pointed out (as does the article linked) the remarkable coincidence between Summers' apparent views of women's capacity (notwithstanding his attempts to backpedal) and the remarkable fact that tenured job offers to women at Harvard have dropped significantly. The article's full of hilarious little snarks like "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." Ya think?
This, however, is my favorite. Having said that his hypothesis is "based on . . . scholarly work," Summers goes on to offer this incredibly scholarly piece of evidence:
"In his talk, according to several participants, Summers also used as an example one of his daughters, who as a child was given two trucks in an effort at gender-neutral parenting. Yet she treated them almost like dolls, naming one of them ''daddy truck,' and one ''baby truck.'"
Well, I've got news for you, Larry. My son, whose father took him to see the first X-Prize launch, calls SpaceShipOne the "Mama Plane" and the "Baby Plane." Click on the link, you'll see why. So I think maybe a little more research needs to be done on this topic before your darling daughter--who I'm sure was raised in a completely non-sexist environment (not)--can really serve as definitive proof that girls can't do math and science.
Dumbass.
(Edited to add that PZ Myers, as usual, manages to be vitriolic *and* better spoken than I am, darn him.)
Posted at 11:09 AM
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