Here is some summary about what Summers actually said that I will cover in class;
The controversial remark: "One is what I would call the-I'll explain each of these in a few moments and comment on how important I think they are-the first is what I call the high-powered job hypothesis. The second is what I would call different availability of aptitude at the high end, and the third is what I would call different socialization and patterns of discrimination in a search. And in my own view, their importance probably ranks in exactly the order that I just described."
Factor 1 captures the idea that women self select away from high intensity jobs in order to raise families and do other things of that sort. "Is our society right to expect that level of effort from people who hold the most prominent jobs? Is our society right to have familial arrangements in which women are asked to make that choice and asked more to make that choice than men?"
Factor 2 refers to the fact that men may have a flatter normal curve, meaning that more men have abilities at the far end of the spectrum. Summers attributes this to genetics not environment, and defends his view. "Yeah, look anything could be social, ultimately in all of that. I think that if you look at the literature on behavioral genetics . . . the evidence is really quite striking and amazing . . . but if somebody thinks that there is proof in these two books, that these phenomenon are caused by something else, I guess I would very respectfully have to disagree very very strongly with that. "
Factor 3 refers to explicit and / or passive discrimination.Summers thinks that it is true that discrimination plays a role in underrepresentation, but not the greatest role.