Battle of the Sex(ist) @ Harvard

[MTI]

Harvard University's president, Lawrence H. Summers, is dealing with the wrath of women when he suggested that they may not have the same innate abilities in math and science as men. The statement was supposedly made at a private session last Friday at a conference in Cambridge. He was presenting provocative hypotheses based on the research of others, rather than offering his personal views. But the Harvard professors who are upset say that the president of a world-famous university does not have the luxury of speaking as an independent researcher.

Isn't there a large body of evidence that the genders are different? Women use both hemispheres of the brain when using language, while apparently men only use one. Physical "hard wiring" aside, there should be little, if any debate, that society shapes boys and girls differently, which may account for the disparity. That's not to say that a male dominated society artificially stymies the advancement of women, for it clearly does, but perhaps Dr. Summers shouldn't be burned at the stake quite yet.