Responses to Lawrence Summers on Women in Science

Information on the Conference
WISELI's Response
Responses by Lawrence Summers and Harvard University
Responses of Other Scholars and Organizations
Forum Discussions on Summers' Remarks
Print Media Coverage | Television and Radio Coverage
Other Print Coverage

Information about the conference

National Board of Economic Research (NBER) Conference "Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce: Women, Underrepresented Minorities, and their S&E Careers "Conference Agenda ( version) Recommended Readings for the Conference

Responses by Lawrence Summers and Harvard University

Report of the Task Force on Women Faculty: Executive summary; Full report; Outline of recommendations; Supporting data Report of the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering: Executive summary; Full report Statement on reports of Task Forces on Women Faculty and on Women in Science and Engineering by President Lawrence H. Summers and Provost Steve E. Hyman Harvard Crimson, Special Coverage of Lawrence Summers Controversy FAS Dean Kirby, Letter to Alumnae and Alumni []- 3/1/2005 Letter to the Faculty Regarding NBER Remarks - 2/17/2005 Transcript of Remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce, 1/14/2005 - released 2/17/2005 Opening Remarks at the February 15 FAS Faculty Meeting - 2/15/2005 Harvard Crimson: Coverage of the February 15 FAS Faculty Meeting 2/16/2005 Harvard Announces Task Forces on Women Faculty and Women in Science and Engineering, Harvard Gazette - 2/3/2005 Letter of Apology - 1/19/2005

Responses by Other Scholars and Organizations

WISELI's Response Statement of the American Sociological Association (ASA) - 3/8/2005 John Hennessey, President, Stanford University; Susan Hockfield, President , Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Shirley Tilghman, President, Princeton University "Women in Science: The Real Issue" - 2/12/2005 Also available in the Stanford Report Denice Denton President Summers' remarks offer global 'teachable moment' - UC Santa Cruz Currents Online Vol. 9; No. 23 (Feb. 7-13, 2005) Virginia Valian "Raise Your Hand if You're a Woman in Science?" - 1/30/2005 in the Washington Post "Outlook: Women in Science" - Online Discussion with Virginia Valian [] moderated by the Washington Post Vita Rabinowitz Letter to the Editor Donna Nelson's Response Susan Hockfield, President , Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Hockfield speaks out on issue of women in science and engineering - 1/25/2005 Janet Holmgren, President, Mills College and Linda Basch, President of the National Council for Research on Women "Encouragement, not gender, key to success in science" - 1/28/2005 in the San Francisco Chronicle Carnegie Conversations -- an online conversation hosted by Carnegie Perspectives M.R.C. Greenwood, Provost and Senior Vice President, University of California "Gender isn't in the Science Equation," San Jose Mercury News - 1/31/2005 Charlotte Fishman, Executive Director, Pick Up the Pace What's Law Got To Do With It? - 2/27/2005 by CommonDreams.org AAAS - American Association for the Advancement of Science Board Statement on Women in Science and Engineering CSWP - Committee on the Status of Women in Physics, Letter to the Editor of the New York Times - 1/19/2005 MentorNet News MentorNet's CEO Takes Leadership Role in Advancing Women in Science - February 2005 Responding to a Teachable Moment - January 2005 WEPAN (Women in Engineering Programs and Advocates Network), AWIS (Association for Women in Science) Letter to the Editor [] of the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Science, and the Chronicle of Higher Education Anita Borg Institute Chronicle of a Controversy NOW (National Organization of Women) Call for Resignation of Harvard's President US Senate Hearing Senator Ron Wyden: Using Title IX to Ensure Equal Opportunity for Women in Math Science The Why Files Women in science: What are the obstacles? Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart's sixth grade class (part of an all-girls, independent, college-preparatory school serving students grades 5 through 12) Sixth Grade Students Respond to Controversial Remarks Made by Harvard's President Summers "The trustees' tipping point" - an online discussion hosted by The Chronicle of Higher Education. "Sex Differences in Intrinsic Aptitude for Mathematics and Science: A Critical Review" - by Elizabeth S. Spelke of Harvard University. The AAUP's Committee on Women Responds to Lawrence Summers

Forum Discussions on Summers' Remarks

Edge: The Third Culture "The Science of Gender and Science - Pinker vs. Spelke: A Debate" - 5/16/2005 University of Wisconsin: Women in Science & Engineering Leadership Institute and Science Alliance "Women in Science and Engineering: What the Research Really Says" - 4/15/2005 Harvard University: Harvard Graduate School of Education "Impediments to Change: Revisiting the Women in Science Question" - 3/21/2005 Stanford University: Institute of Research on Women & Gender "Gender in Math, Science, and Engineering: Stanford Researchers Discuss New and Important Evidence" - 2/4/2005

Print Media Coverage**

Current News (May 23 - 29) May 16 - 22 May 9 - 15 May 2 - 8 April 25 - May 1 April 18 - 24 April 11 - 17 April 4 - 10 Print Media Coverage Archive: January 17 - April 3 Current News (May 23 - 29) Chronicle of Higher Education "Harvard Committees Suggest Steps to Help Women" - Volume 51, Issue 38, (5/27/2005): A8 (Subscription required for full text - available in Proquest Research Library after one month) Harvard Crimson "Three Vice-Provost Positions Created" - 5/23/2005

Print Media Coverage: May 16 - 22

Harvard University Gazette "Harvard Task Forces on Women release findings and recommendations" - 5/16/2005 Boston Globe "Summers's critics are wary, but more hopeful" - 5/22/2005 "Harvard's evolution" - 5/18/2005 "Summers sets $50m women's initiative" - 5/17/2005 "Harvard to spend $50 million on diversity" (Reuters) - 5/17/2005 "Harvard to commit $50M to women programs" (AP) - 5/17/2005 Chronicle of Higher Education "Harvard Panels Suggest Steps for Improving the Lot of Female Professors; Some Proposals Already Have Been Endorsed" - 5/17/2005(Subscription required for full text - available in Proquest Research Library after one month) New York Times "They Take It All Back: May 15-21" - 5/22/2005 "Harvard Will Spend $50 Million to Make Faculty More Diverse" - 5/17/2005

Print Media Coverage: May 9 - 15

Boston Globe "Experts urge Congress to help women pursue science careers" (AP) - 5/11/2005 "A bumper crop of top women scientists" - 5/10/2005 Chronicle of Higher Education "Chickens: the Ward Churchill and Larry Summers Story" - Volume 51, Issue 36, (5/13/2005): B9 (Subscription required for full text - available in Proquest Research Library after one month)

Print Media Coverage: May 2 - 8

Boston Globe "In Maine, a totally green graduation (Harvard Reaches Out)" - 5/8/2005 "The ABCs of character" - 5/5/2005 Chronicle of Higher Education "The Trustees' Tipping Point" - Volume 51, Issue 35, (5/6/2005): A27 (Subscription required for full text - available in Proquest Research Library after one month) New York Times "National Academy of Sciences Elects 19 Women, a New High" - 5/4/2005 "New Light on M.I.T. Issues, With a (Gasp!) Biologist at the Helm" - 5/3/2005 Harvard Crimson "Faculty Briefed on Curricular Review" - 5/4/2005 "Unfair to the Fairer Sex" - 5/4/2005 "Pre-Frosh Get Peek At Task Force Plan" - 5/2/2005

Print Media Coverage: April 25 - May 1

Boston Globe "A woman's place in the lab: Harvard studies efforts to boost women faculty at U-Wisconsin" - 5/1/2005 "Science Friction" - 5/1/2005 New York Times "Where Popular Sciences Is Called Women's Work" - 4/27/2005 Harvard Crimson "Admissions Calls Out to Women in Science" - 4/29/2005 "Profs Spar on 'Innate Differences'" - 4/25/2005

Print Media Coverage: April 18 - 24

Boston Globe "Another Summers speech questioned" - 4/21/2005 "Summers releases transcript in another flap over remarks" (AP) - 4/20/2005 Chronicle of Higher Education "Former General Electric Chief Defends Harvard President's Remarks" - Volume 51, Issue 33, (4/22/2005): A30 (Subscription required for full text - available in Proquest Research Library after one month) Harvard Crimson "Academic Chiefs Discuss Diversity" - 4/22/2005 "My School, My Thesis" - 4/21/2005

Print Media Coverage: April 11 - 17

Boston Globe "Harvard's Gates to step down as department head" - 4/16/2005 "Gates to step down as African American Studies chairman; will remain at Harvard" (AP) - 4/16/2005 "Gates to step down from Harvard post" (AP) - 4/16/2005 NewYork Times "Harvard Professor to Step Down as Chairman of Black Studies" - 4/17/2005 Letter to the Editor: "The Harvard Mess" - 4/17/2005 "For Women in Sciences, Slow Progress in Academia" - 4/15/2005 "Theorist Drawn Into Debate 'That Will Not Go Away'" - 4/12/2005 Washington Post "These Leaders Get the Respect They Deserve" - 4/17/2005 "The Man in The Ivory Tower" - 4/15/2005 Harvard Crimson "Profs Push for Early Meeting Finish" - 4/13/2005

Print Media Coverage: April 4 - April 10

Chronicle of Higher Education Kenneth A. Show "A Vote for Confidence in College Presidents" - The Chronicle Review, 51; 31 (4/8/2005): B13. (Subscription required for full text - available in Proquest Research Library after one month) Boston Globe "Summers displays new understanding of women's careers" - 4/8/2005 "Harvard loses top political scientist" - 4/6/2005 "Black scholar to leave Harvard and return to University of Chicago" (AP) - 4/6/2005 "Prominent black scholar to leave Harvard" (AP) - 4/6/2005 Harvard Crimson "Summers: Women in Science" - 4/8/2005

Television and Radio Coverage

Wisconsin Public Radio Ideas Network: Katherine Dunn with guest Richard Haier, professor of psychology, UC–Irvine discuss Lawrence Summers and current research on brain differences relative to women and science. National Public Radio News Analysis, "'Summer's Storm' Overshadows a Worthy Topic" - Daniel Schorr - 1/23/2005 Talk of the Nation, Science Friday - "Women in Science" - with Nancy Hopkins, Amgen, Inc. Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Marianne Bronner-Fraser, Albert Billings Ruddock Professor of Biology, California Institute of Technology; Meg Urry, Professor of Physics and Director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics; 1/28/2005 "A Look at Research on Gender and Science" - David Kestenbaum - 1/28/2005 Diane Rehm Show - "Women in Science and Math" - Panel discussion with Susan Ganter, Executive director, AWIS; Kimberlee Shauman, Sociology, University of California, Davis; Virginia Valian, Psychology and Linguistics, Hunter College; 1/27/2005 All Things Considered - "Could Summers Have a Point about Women in Science?" - NPR's Michele Norris and Robert Siegel with Drew Weston, Psychology, Emory University, 1/19/2005 Day to Day - "The Gender Gap in Math and Science Careers" - NPR's Madeline Brand talks with Nicole Weekes, Prof. Psychology and NeuroScience, Pomona College, 1/19/2005 Television coverage MSNBC: "Women explore the frontiers of physics: Einstein's intellectual heiresses add to his legacy" by Alan Boyle CBS News Sunday Morning: Elizabeth Kaledin, "No Kidding!" - reports on research and stereotypes of women in science, brain differences, Barnard College, 3/13/2005. (Digital link to television program on Barnard College's website. Transcript available from CBS.) PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer: Women and Science - Background Report by Betty Ann Browser - 2/22/2005 PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer: Women and Science - Three Professors discuss Summer's comments and women's role in science; Gwen Iffel with Virginia Valian, Sandra Witelson, and Kim Shaumann WHDH TV - New England News: "Harvard President Outlines Mission For Two Committees on Women" - 2/4/2005 CBS News, Harvard Debate, January 2005 (Links to CBS Sunday Morning webpage, "Intellectual Gender Gap." This page links to the transcript of Elizbeth Kaledin's 3/13/2005 coverage and to this earlier coverage of L. Summer's remarks.)

Other Print Coverage

Cahill, L. (2005). "His Brain, Her Brain" - 4/25/2005 Scientific American Bradt, S. (2005). "Requisites for success: Stamina, Boundary-setting." Harvard University Gazette - 4/21/2005. Byko, M. (2005). "Challenges and Opportunities for Women in Science and Engineering." Journal of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (JOM), 57(4) Anonymous (2005). "Evelynn Hammonds of Harvard Named To Lead Its Female Faculty Task Force." Jet, 107(10) p. 7, 2pgs.

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