Blog 10
President Summers,
As a powerful and intelligent man, you hold great influence over this nation, you have the nation's ear. That's especially why I found your statement regarding the lack of women in science so upsetting. Though your words were well intentioned and as you felt, well founded, they were interpreted as a clear sexist message. You say its not anyone's fault that women appear in so few numbers in the sciences at Harvard, but your words today will not encourage any women to apply to such an enviroment where they feel as if their work may be discounted to do the fact you do not believe its in their natural inclination. Women are not as present in the sciences, not due to any biological condition, they aren't there because the majority of their male collegues may parrot the beliefs you expressed in your address. By expressing these thoughts, you've further made the laboratory and math hall a formidable place for a women, a place they do not feel welcome or wanted. As pointed out by Bublick, you had every resource available to create a strong case for your arguement using research and data, yet you chose to quote your own personal experience to explain a problem that affects hundreds of people. Experience is static, its interpreted and felt in an unfathomable number of different ways. Though you hold a high academic title, your experience is not superior or elite to any other. As for your observation with your daughters, perhaps you should look to the 'soft' sciences to explain children's behavior and psychology, obviously something you have no understanding of. Children mimic behavior of adults around them, since your daughters most likely spend a great deal of time with their mother, naturally they will mimic behaviors they see her complete. If your daughters cannot make the connection between the toy truck and the role of a real truck, how can they produce the 'manly' behaviors with it. Children do what they know, they know how their mother cares for them. Your speech only made you look foolish.
Steffanie Bezruki
a concerned female university student with a science major