Recently, Harvard president made one of the classic blunders. At a conference about women and underrepresented minorities in science and engineering careers, Dr. Lawrence Summers cited the possibility that men are innately more capable in math and science than women.
To be fair, Summers said he was taken out of context and did not believe that women are intellectually inferior to men. And the fact that men generally achieve higher standardized test scores in high school than women can certainly be measured.
Summers still made a grave mistake. He was speaking to women who have worked to achieve their education and position in a culture that, until the last few decades, discouraged women from any job other than wife and mother.
Summers also mentioned women’s unwillingness to work long hours and completely devote themselves to their careers.
Many women at the conference and around the world were angered by his comments, and rightfully so. Women have taken great strides in the past century, including gaining the right to vote, acceptance in the work force and acknowledgement of importance.
However, the quest for gender equality has not ended. From birth, boys and girls are taught to behave, communicate and generally think differently. That helps explain the noticeable gender ratios in the different academic programs at a university.
However, blaming this discrepancy on biology is a serious fallacy, especially when we see so many exceptional women in math and science. They are following in the footsteps of one of the most famous scientists of all time, Marie Curie, the woman who discovered radiation. During her lifetime, her male research partner was given most of the credit. Curie was given credit only after her death. Still, women fight against the glass ceiling and gender stereotypes that give men more credit than women.
Every woman should rightfully be insulted that Summers implied that women are not willing to work as long hours as men. It is certainly the traditional expectation for men to spend long hours at work to support his family as the “bread-winner,” while women must dedicate their lives to taking care of their children and husbands.
Women have broken out of their homes and gone into the workplaces. Yet they are still expected to fulfill all of their traditional domestic duties. True equality for women only comes when men take up an equal share of domestic responsibility.
Do you know what that means? Working long hours to the exclusion of personal time is an undesirable trait for all.
And then Summers confronted us with studies that have not even been proven. Even the mention of these beliefs is an insult to women, and especially the women who work every day to surpass limitations against women.
During the time of slavery in America, and even afterward, many white people believed that black slaves did not have the intellectual capabilities of white people, or even the ability to take care of themselves and live freely. They used these arguments to justify everything from keeping them as slaves to beating them whenever they felt like it.
The belief that blacks are intellectually inferior is now not even in question, as well as highly racist.
I realize that there are more differences in sex than there are in race. However, I find it strange that the same culture traps historically used against blacks seem also to be used against women. In the past, and even today, blacks generally have a harder time achieving in academics since they are not expected to do so. Don’t you think that the same argument applies to women?
I do not refute that there are differences between the genders. However, I argue that these differences, especially within academics, can largely be blamed on cultural expectations. After all, gender is a cultural construct.
What we need to focus on in the 21st century is to not be tied down by traditional gender stereotypes that force people into specific roles. The women and minorities at the conference were trying to do this, and Summers, however good intentioned, only served to impede these goals.
Angela Adair is a senior English major. She can be reached at [email protected].