PC Slaps Harvard President Squarely in the Face

Lawrence H. Summers, president of Harvard University, reportedly suggested at an economic conference Friday “that innate differences in the sexes could explain why fewer women succeed in science and math careers.” Summers’ remarks apparently enraged MIT biologist Nancy Hopkins, who walked out on his talk. “It is so upsetting that all these brilliant young women (at Harvard) are being led by a man who views them this way,” said Hopkins. Summers defended himself.

Update: Michelle Malkin comments on this story here.

He said that “he was discussing hypotheses based on the scholarly work assembled for the conference, not expressing his own views. He also said more research needs to be done on the issues.” He also said he was speaking in his capacity as an economist, not on behalf of Harvard. And he said he was trying to fulfill his charge to be provocative.

If liberals are going to be consistent here they’ll have to refuse to cut Summers any slack. Just a few weeks ago they insisted on crucifying Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales for legal memos in which he and he and others in the government opined about the applicability of the Geneva conventions to unlawful combatant (terrorist) detainees.

In response to the defense that he wasn’t advocating a relaxed definition of “torture,” but merely offering his legal opinion based on a CIA inquiry, his accusers sneered. They insisted that he be raked over the coals merely for entertaining the question. And giving his honest legal opinion on the matter was more than the guardians of political correctness could bear.

Well, what’s good for the goose…

For what it’s worth, I reject the notion. Mary Pat Beattie, Carol Russell and Cathy Underwood always ran circles around most of the boys in our grade school and high school math classes. 🙂