SEX, MATH, AND LARRY SUMMERS

1
SEX, MATH, AND LARRY SUMMERS

• Kathy Paur
• Math Department
• Harvard University

Dartmouth College 12 May 2005
2
AGENDA

• Tenure offers to women at Harvard
• Larry Summers on women in science
• Biology
• Womens progress in science and academia
• Discrimination in academia
• Harvard fallout

3
Percent of FAS tenure offers to women at Harvard
13/36
14/41
7/24
7/25
9/35
7/31
6/32
6/34
4/32
3/27
94/95
97/98
00/01
03/04
President Rudenstine
President Summers
4
6 OCTOBER 2004

• More than 50 women faculty met with Larry Summers
  to discuss decline in tenure offers to women.

5
6 OCTOBER 2004
More than 50 women faculty met with Larry Summers
to discuss decline in tenure offers to
women. There was considerable concern about
the refusal of Summers and Kirby to implement
further institutional reforms. Anonymous
Professor
6
6 OCTOBER 2004
More than 50 women faculty met with Larry Summers
to discuss decline in tenure offers to
women. President Summers didnt seem to want to
take up the challenge of recognizing that this is
an important problem and make the issue
his. Anonymous Professor
7
6 OCTOBER 2004
More than 50 women faculty met with Larry Summers
to discuss decline in tenure offers to
women. Summers disagreed that Harvard is
disadvantaged, noting that the University has
three female deansthree times as many as its
ever had in its historyand four female vice
presidents, out of six. The Harvard Crimson
8
6 OCTOBER 2004
More than 50 women faculty met with Larry Summers
to discuss decline in tenure offers to
women. Summers didnt want to appear to be
appointing people for demographic
reasons. Anonymous Professor
9
6 OCTOBER 2004
More than 50 women faculty met with Larry Summers
to discuss decline in tenure offers to
women. Its been many years since anyone at
Harvard (or anyone who is moderately enlightened)
has implied that tenuring more women would be
fulfilling a quota or giving in to
pressure. Nancy Tobin, Research Chair,
Committee for the Equality of Women at Harvard
10
AGENDA

• Tenure offers to women at Harvard
• Larry Summers on women in science
• Biology
• Womens progress in science and academia
• Discrimination in academia
• Harvard fallout

11
14 JANUARY 2005, National Bureau of Economic
Research

• Summers speaks at NBER Conference on Women and
  Minorities in Science and Engineering

12
14 JANUARY 2005, National Bureau of Economic
Research
Summers speaks at NBER Conference on Women and
Minorities in Science and Engineering
13
INTRODUCTION

• There are three broad hypotheses about the
  very substantial disparities in the presence of
  women in high-end scientific professions
• And in my own view, their importance probably
  ranks in exactly the order that I just
  described.

• 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.

14
MIDDLE

• So my best guess, to provoke you, of what's
  behind all of this is that the largest
  phenomenon, by far, is family desires that in
  the special case of science and engineering,
  there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and
  particularly of the variability of aptitude, and
  that those considerations are reinforced by what
  are in fact lesser factors involving
  socialization and continuing discrimination.

15
CONCLUSION

• Let me just conclude by saying that I've given
  you my best guesses after a fair amount of
  reading the literature and a lot of talking to
  people. They may be all wrong. I will have served
  my purpose if I have provoked thought on this
  question and provoked the marshalling of evidence
  to contradict what I have said. But I think we
  all need to be thinking very hard about how to do
  better on these issues and that they are too
  important to sentimentalize rather than to think
  about in as rigorous and careful ways as we can.

16
4 HYPOTHESES FOR GENDER IMBALANCE
17
4 HYPOTHESES FOR GENDER IMBALANCE

• Family Desires

18
4 HYPOTHESES FOR GENDER IMBALANCE

• Family Desires
• Aptitude Differences

19
4 HYPOTHESES FOR GENDER IMBALANCE

• Family Desires
• Aptitude Differences
• Socialization

20
4 HYPOTHESES FOR GENDER IMBALANCE

• Family Desires
• Aptitude Differences
• Socialization
• Discrimination

21
SUMMERSS THESIS
Family Desires
Discrimination
More Men than Women in Science and Engineering
Aptitude Differences
Socialization
22
SUMMERSS THESIS
Family Desires
Discrimination
More Men than Women in Science and Engineering
Factors internal to women
Aptitude Differences
Socialization
23
SUMMERSS THESIS
Family Desires
Discrimination
Societal behaviors that perpetuate glass ceilings
Factors that institutions must take
responsibility for
More Men than Women in Science and Engineering
Factors internal to women
Aptitude Differences
Socialization
24
SUMMERSS EVIDENCE
25
SUMMERSS EVIDENCE

• Family Desires seems to be an issue.

26
SUMMERSS EVIDENCE

• Family Desires seems to be an issue.
• Aptitude variability maybe there are more men
  than women with high math talent.

27
SUMMERSS EVIDENCE

• Family Desires seems to be an issue.
• Aptitude variability maybe there are more men
  than women with high math talent.
• I think one sees relatively little evidence of
  a possible consequence of discrimination

28
SUMMERSS EVIDENCE

• Family Desires seems to be an issue.
• Aptitude variability maybe there are more men
  than women with high math talent.
• I think one sees relatively little evidence of
  a possible consequence of discrimination
• Men and women behave differently (kibbutzes and
  Daddy trucks).

29
SUMMERS REALLY ARGUED
Family Desires
Discrimination
More Men than Women in Science and Engineering
Aptitude Differences
Socialization

• (and not convincingly or scientifically.)

30
(No Transcript)
31
AGENDA

• Tenure offers to women at Harvard
• Larry Summers on women in science
• Biology
• Womens progress in science and academia
• Discrimination in academia
• Harvard fallout

32
BIOLOGICALLY, MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT.
33
BIOLOGICALLY, MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT.

• Women bear children.

34
BIOLOGICALLY, MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT.

• Women bear children.
• Men are somewhat taller and faster (but not
  much).

35
BIOLOGICALLY, MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT.

• Women bear children.
• Men are somewhat taller and faster (but not
  much).
• Men have significantly greater upper body
  strength.

36
BIOLOGICALLY, MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT.

• Women bear children.
• Men are somewhat taller and faster (but not
  much).
• Men have significantly greater upper body
  strength.
• Even their brains are different. (Women have
  more white matter.)

37
BUT DO MEN AND WOMEN HAVE BIOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES
IN INTELLECTUAL ABILITY?
38

• We dont know how to measure intrinsic
  aptitude.

39
We dont know how to measure intrinsic
aptitude. We can measure test scores.
40
U.S. DATA
Reading Scores
Math Scores
More Males with low scores
More Females with high scores
More Females with low scores
More Males with high scores
(pattern shown in 5 of 6 studies of reading tests
for late high school students)
(pattern shown in 4 of 5 studies of math tests
for late high school students)
Data Source Hedges and Nowell (1995)
41
INTERNATIONAL DATA
Reading In all countries tested, girls score
higher on average than boys, and this difference
is statistically significant.
Data International Education Association, PIRLS
2001 (4th graders in 35 countries) and TIMSS 2003
(8th graders in 47 countries)
42
INTERNATIONAL DATA
Reading In all countries tested, girls score
higher on average than boys, and this difference
is statistically significant. Math
9
Countries where boys score higher than girls on
average (includes U.S.)
29
Countries with no statistically significant
difference
9
Countries where girls score higher than boys on
average
Data International Education Association, PIRLS
2001 (4th graders in 35 countries) and TIMSS 2003
(8th graders in 47 countries)
43
(No Transcript)
44
Thus, while its possible that girls have, on
average, greater intrinsic aptitude for reading
than do boys
45

• Thus, while its possible that girls have, on
  average, greater intrinsic aptitude for reading
  than do boys
• It is not reasonable to hypothesize that that
  boys have, on average, greater intrinsic
  aptitude for math.

46
(No Transcript)
47
The variance of male scores is greater than that
of female scores in all but two of 37 national
tests, in math, reading, science, social studies,
etc
48
MISINTERPRETATION
49
MISINTERPRETATION
Males
50
MISINTERPRETATION
Males
Though male scores have greater variance than
female scores, the score distributions dont
necessarily look like this. (We dont know much
about how the extreme tail regions look.)
51
Males
(The distributions could look like this.)
52
Remember, in the U.S., they look like this
Males
Females
(We dont know how the extreme tail regions look.)
53
SUMMERSS SUGGESTION
Males
54
SUMMERSS SUGGESTION
Elite Scientists
Males
55
SUMMERSS SUGGESTION
Elite Scientists
Males
This would result in more men than women among
scientists and engineers.
56
SUMMERSS SUGGESTION
Elite Scientists
Males
This might be true. The distributions might be
perfect bell curves, and all great scientists
might have excellent high school math scores.
But it might not be true, too.
57
AGENDA

• Tenure offers to women at Harvard
• Larry Summers on women in science
• Biology
• Womens progress in science and academia
• Discrimination in academia
• Harvard fallout

58
Percentage of Science and Engineering Doctorates
Earned by Women, 1976-2001
Source Freeman/Chang/Chiang tabulations from
the Survey of Earned Doctorates. Note Chart
refers to doctorates earned by U.S. citizens /
permanent residents at U.S. institutions.
From Richard Freemans NBER talk, 14 Jan 2005
59
Percentage of NSF Fellowships Awarded to Women,
1955-2004
From Richard Freemans NBER talk, 14 Jan 2005
60
Women are achieving parity in the life sciences
at the PhD level
61
Women are achieving parity in the life sciences
at the PhD level so it seems unlikely that
their genes are hindering them
62
Women are achieving parity in the life sciences
at the PhD level so it seems unlikely that
their genes are hindering them at least at
that level.
63
So why arent women with science PhDs becoming
faculty at the expected rate?
64
So why arent women with science PhDs becoming
faculty at the expected rate?

• They arent good enough?
• Looking less and less likely

65
So why arent women with science PhDs becoming
faculty at the expected rate?

• They arent good enough?
• Looking less and less likely
• Family desires?
• Probably an issue, though we dont know the
  degree to which it affects women more than men.

66
So why arent women with science PhDs becoming
faculty at the expected rate?

• They arent good enough?
• Looking less and less likely
• Family desires?
• Probably an issue, though we dont know the
  degree to which it affects women more than men.
• Discrimination?
• Summers thought this was relatively less
  important

67
AGENDA

• Tenure offers to women at Harvard
• Larry Summers on women in science
• Biology
• Womens progress in science and academia
• Discrimination in academia
• Harvard fallout

68
(No Transcript)
69
For a female scientist to be awarded the same
competence score as a male colleague, she needed
to exceed his scientific productivity by
approximately three extra papers in Nature or
Science or 20 extra papers in specialist
journals.
70
(Impact is a measure of papers written, weighted
by importance of journal.)
71
This study looked at competence scores given to
biologists applying for postdocs in Sweden.
72
This study looked at competence scores given to
biologists applying for postdocs in Sweden. The
same year the study was published, the UN named
Sweden the leading country in the world for equal
opportunities for women.
73

• If academic discrimination occurs in Sweden, it
  seems likely that it occurs in the U.S.

74
So if the peer-review process is biased
75
So if the peer-review process is biased then
maybe we should be concerned about tenure, too.
76
Percent of FAS tenure offers to women at Harvard
13/36
14/41
7/24
7/25
9/35
7/31
6/32
6/34
4/32
3/27
94/95
97/98
00/01
03/04
President Rudenstine
President Summers
77
AGENDA

• Tenure offers to women at Harvard
• Larry Summers on women in science
• Biology
• Womens progress in science and academia
• Discrimination in academia
• Harvard fallout

78
HARVARD FALLOUT
79
HARVARD FALLOUT

• The national criticism created a climate in which
  professors could speak out against Summers.

80
HARVARD FALLOUT

• The national criticism created a climate in which
  professors could speak out against Summers.
• The vote of no confidence reflected anger with
  Summerss leadership, much more than anger over
  his comments on women in science.

81
HARVARD FALLOUT

• The national criticism created a climate in which
  professors could speak out against Summers.
• The vote of no confidence reflected anger with
  Summerss leadership, much more than anger over
  his comments on women in science.
• Taskforce on Faculty of Arts and Sciences Women

82
HARVARD FALLOUT

• The national criticism created a climate in which
  professors could speak out against Summers.
• The vote of no confidence reflected anger with
  Summerss leadership, much more than anger over
  his comments on women in science.
• Taskforce on Faculty of Arts and Sciences Women
• Taskforce on Women in Science and Engineering

83
WILL HARVARD CHANGE?
84
WILL HARVARD CHANGE?

• The Taskforce on Women in Science and Engineering
  has received assurances from President Summers
  that Harvard will take the taskforces
  recommendations seriously.

85
WILL HARVARD CHANGE?

• The Taskforce on Women in Science and Engineering
  has received assurances from President Summers
  that Harvard will take the taskforces
  recommendations seriously.
• Ill believe it when the Harvard Math Department
  tenures a woman

86
but at least a woman spoke at our April math
colloquium.
87
(No Transcript)
88
(No Transcript)
89
SUMMERSS SUGGESTION
Elite Scientists
Males
This would result in more men than women among
scientists and engineers.
90
BUT ITS NOT THAT SIMPLE.

• Test scores dont make perfect bell curves.
  Mathematical aptitude probably doesnt either.
• We dont know that variance differences predict
  tail phenomena.
• Test scores dont translate directly into career
  success.
• Women continue to make progress in science and
  engineering, even at elite levels.

91
STEPHEN PINKERS HYPOTHESIS

• It may be evolutionarily advantageous on a
  species level if mens fitness varies more than
  womens.
• This hypothesis depends upon an unknown
  relationship between the species-level advantages
  of more men/women reproducing versus fitter
  men/women reproducing.

92
X CHROMOSOME HYPOTHESIS

• Women are XX, Men are XY
• Suppose theres a math gene on the X
  chromosome.
• If a man inherits a brilliant math gene, then he
  is automatically brilliant.
• If a woman inherits a brilliant math gene, then
  she is only half brilliant and may not be very
  likely to inherit a second brilliant gene.
• Work in progress points to rejecting this
  hypothesis.

93
(No Transcript)