Bahd news fah Hahvahd

The president of Harvard is defending himself against comments he made the other day, claiming they were misconstrued.

At Friday's conference, Mr. Summers discussed possible reasons so few women were on the science and engineering faculties at research universities, and he said he would be provocative.

Among his hypotheses were that faculty positions at elite universities required more time and energy than married women with children were willing to accept, that innate sex differences might leave women less capable of succeeding at the most advanced mathematics and that discrimination may also play a role, participants said. There was no transcript of his remarks.

That's a pretty big faux pas, eh? I wish there was a transcript available, damn it. I can't believe an assumedly well-educated man would make such a comment.

The New York Times > Education > No Break in the Storm Over Harvard President's Words