What Larry Summers Said

gender-stemharvardcontroversyintrinsic-aptitudewomen-in-science

Abstraction: Harvard president's controversial remarks on women's underrepresentation in science

Key points:

Harvard President Larry Summers (January 2005 seminar) suggested the most important factor in women's underrepresentation in top science roles was work-life commitment demands, not discrimination
Secondary hypothesis: variance in male vs. female distributions on cognitive attributes means the extreme tail (3.5-4 SD) of scientific aptitude has more men even if means are equal or similar
Discrimination dismissed partly on economic grounds: rational institutions would exploit undervalued talent
MIT, Princeton, and Stanford presidents released a joint statement rejecting Summers' views
Summers later apologized, acknowledging he "substantially understated the impact of socialization and discrimination"
Steven Pinker called the remarks "masterly and well-supported"; Elizabeth Spelke said "not a shred of evidence" for the biological factor

Connections: Larry Summers · Harvard · Gender In Stem · Variance Hypothesis