Wake up, Mr. Summers!
Blog Ten
Dear Mr. Summers:
I have comments in light of your remarks regarding women in science and engineering. I am amazed with the education and the resources afforded you in your position that you can take such a condescending and ill researched attitude towards an important topic as equity and equality for women in the fields science and engineering. You should be at the forefront of opening doors for women, helping to change attitudes by example, not contributing to the limitations of a patriarchal system not only within Harvard but also in society.
Even in your claim that you “made an effort to think in a very serious way� (Bublick) about this ever relevant subject of equal opportunities for women in all aspects of life including education and the workforce, you miss the opportunity to open the doors to fairness for everyone.
I find you fall short of broad thinking just in the fact of the narrow viewpoint you share in your examples for instance of about life on a kibbutz in Israel. You are far off the mark not to take in consideration that both men and women learn their male and female gendered roles as a “whole� person which includes societal, social, familial, and religious pressures, expectations, and limitations. These roles are not performed within a vacuum but are ever present within all aspects of a person’s life.
It is up to universities and the staff within them to broader their own thinking to make fairness and equality available for all students.
Please come down from your ivory tower; open your eyes to your ability to open doors for both women and men.