Ridiculous at Radcliffe

Loyal reader RB lets us know why we should stop taking some members of the Harvard College faculty seriously... fine, so that wasn't a problem...

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University hosted a conference last week entitled "Impediments to Change: Revisiting the Women in Science Question." The auditorium in Agassiz Theatre in Radcliffe Yard was packed. Dedicated in 1904, the theatre has been the site of many a spirited intellectual exchange. But on this day it was a forum not for debate but for indignation over the insult that the assembled referred to as "1/14" -- the date when Harvard President Larry Summers fatefully speculated about the possibility of inborn differences between the sexes.

The six assembled panelists, four from Harvard, two from MIT, did not challenge one another -- as scholarly panelists often do -- but basked in their shared conviction that there is only one explanation for why fewer women than men teach math and physics at Harvard or MIT: sexist bias. In fact, their only motive for "revisiting" the women-in-science question, was to give a proper burial to the hypothesis that there are significant biologically-based differences between men and women.

..."In this day and age to believe that men and women differ in their basic competence for math and science is as insidious as believing that some people are better suited to be slaves and others masters," one panelist, Mahzarin Banaji, a professor in the Harvard psychology department told the Harvard Crimson.

Nancy Hopkins was another speaker. The MIT biologist has become known as the professor who fled the room on 1/14. "I felt I was going to be sick," she famously said. At the Radcliffe confab, Ms. Hopkins again talked about how Mr. Summers affected her physiology: "I had to walk out out of respect for my blood pressure." For this show of courage, the audience gave her a standing ovation. But the room soon quieted down when she told a harrowing tale of hate mail she had received. A Harvard alum had sent her some air sickness bags and urged her to consult a physician. "I would suggest a psychiatrist," he wrote. Audience members gasped at the sheer misogyny of it all.

This reminds me of an old joke. How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Answer: That's not funny.

Someone needs to remind the folks here that if someone hurts your feelings, it doesn't mean that you're right. It might be nice for people who claim to be professionals to provide conclusive evidence to back up their claims, rather than simply calling the other side names.