كتب الكاتب الفاتح جبرا المتوفرة بمعرض الدوحة
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 سمرس، كبير مستشارى أوباوما للإقتصاد ذو موقف مخزى من النساء
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يناير 2005 كان لورنس سمرس يشغل منصب رئيس جامعة هارفارد فى بوسطن.
أثناء أحد المؤتمرات الأكاديمية قال سمر بأن للأختلاف النوعى أثر فى التحصيل الأكاديمى،
وأن الطالبات أقل حظا فى النجاح عن نظرائهم الطلبه فى العلوم والرياضيات!
أثارت هذه المقولات الغير علمية حفيظة المجتمع الأكاديمى فى هارفارد وبوسطن عموما...مما دفع لاحقا سمر للإستقاله من منصبه لتتولى رئاسة جامعة هارفرد إمرأه.
تناقلت وسائل الاعلام أن لورنس سمر سمى كبير مستشارى الرئيس المنتخب براك أوباما لشئون الاقتصاد.
Summers' remarks on women draw fire
By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff | January 17, 2005
CAMBRIDGE -- The president of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers, sparked an uproar at an academic conference Friday when he said that innate differences between men and women might be one reason fewer women succeed in science and math careers. Summers also questioned how much of a role discrimination plays in the dearth of female professors in science and engineering at elite universities.
Nancy Hopkins, a biologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, walked out on Summers' talk, saying later that if she hadn't left, ''I would've either blacked out or thrown up." Five other participants reached by the Globe, including Denice D. Denton, chancellor designate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, also said they were deeply offended, while four other attendees said they were not.
Summers said he was only putting forward hypotheses based on the scholarly work assembled for the conference, not expressing his own judgments -- in fact, he said, more research needs to be done on these issues. The organizer of the conference at the National Bureau of Economic Research said Summers was asked to be provocative, and that he was invited as a top economist, not as a Harvard official.
However, the problem of women in academia is one that Summers is confronting in his role as university president. The percentage of tenured job offers made to women by the university's Faculty of Arts and Sciences has dropped dramatically since Summers took office, prompting vigorous complaints from many of Harvard's senior female professors.
Summers has called last year's results, when only four of 32 tenured job offers went to women, unacceptable and promised to work on the problem. However, some Harvard professors have questioned his commitment to the issue.
The setting was a two-day conference at the economic research bureau, a group in Cambridge whose members include economists from all over the country. The conference, on women and minorities in the science and engineering workforce, was a private, invitation-only event, with about 50 attendees.
Summers spoke during a working lunch. He declined to provide a tape or transcript of his remarks, but the description he gave in an interview was generally in keeping with what 10 participants recalled. He said he was synthesizing the scholarship that the organizers had asked him to discuss, and that in his talk he repeated several times: ''I'm going to provoke you."
He offered three possible explanations, in declining order of importance, for the small number of women in high-level positions in science and engineering. The first was the reluctance or inability of women who have children to work 80-hour weeks.
The second point was that fewer girls than boys have top scores on science and math tests in late high school years. ''I said no one really understands why this is, and it's an area of ferment in social science," Summers said in an interview Saturday. ''Research in behavioral genetics is showing that things people previously attributed to socialization weren't" due to socialization after all.
This was the point that most angered some of the listeners, several of whom said Summers said that women do not have the same ''innate ability" or ''natural ability" as men in some fields.
Asked about this, Summers said, ''It's possible I made some reference to innate differences. . . I did say that you have to be careful in attributing things to socialization. . . That's what we would prefer to believe, but these are things that need to be studied."
Summers said cutting-edge research has shown that genetics are more important than previously thought, compared with environment or upbringing. As an example, he mentioned autism, once believed to be a result of parenting but now widely seen to have a genetic basis.
In his talk, according to several participants, Summers also used as an example one of his daughters, who as a child was given two trucks in an effort at gender-neutral parenting. Yet she treated them almost like dolls, naming one of them ''daddy truck," and one ''baby truck."
It was during his comments on ability that Hopkins, sitting only 10 feet from Summers, closed her computer, put on her coat, and walked out. ''It is so upsetting that all these brilliant young women [at Harvard] are being led by a man who views them this way," she said later in an interview.
Hopkins was the main force behind an influential study documenting inequalities for women at MIT, which led that school's former president, Charles M. Vest, to acknowledge the pattern of bias in 1999. A member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, she is also a Harvard graduate.
She doesn't argue that there can't be any differences between the abilities of men and women, but she said there is vast evidence that social factors do affect women's performance. For example, she mentioned studies that indicate that women score higher on math tests if there are fewer men in the room while they are taking the test.
The five other women who were offended by Summers' speech also argued that their objections were based on research that indicates women do perform at the highest levels when given the same opportunities and encouragement as men.
''Here was this economist lecturing pompously [to] this room full of the country's most accomplished scholars on women's issues in science and engineering, and he kept saying things we had refuted in the first half of the day," said Denton, the outgoing dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. Next month, Denton will become the new head of UC Santa Cruz.
Besides Hopkins and Denton, the participants who criticized Summers to a Globe reporter were Anne C. Petersen, former deputy director of the National Science Foundation; Catherine Didion, former executive director of the Association for Women in Science; Donna J. Nelson, chemistry professor at the University of Oklahoma; and Sheila Tobias, a feminist author and proponent of women in science.
The organizer of the conference, Harvard economist Richard B. Freeman, described Summers' critics as activists whose sensibilities might be at odds with intellectual debate.
Summers is known for being confrontational and has stirred up numerous controversies before, most famously when he questioned African-American studies professor Cornel West's scholarship and teaching. West subsequently took a job at Princeton.
''We are lucky enough to have a president who is capable and willing to have these discussions rather than talk in bureaucratese," Freeman said. ''I predict he will get more things done on women and faculty issues because he's a straight-talking, no-baloney president."
Three other participants reached by the Globe also said they were not offended by Summers' comments, which they felt reflected mainstream economic theories. They were Sarah Turner, an economist at the University of Virginia; Paula Stephan, an economist at Georgia State University; and David Goldston, chief of staff for the US House Committee on Science.
Summers' third point was about discrimination. Referencing a well-known concept in economics, he said that if discrimination was the main factor limiting the advancement of women in science and engineering, then a school that does not discriminate would gain an advantage by hiring away the top women who were discriminated against elsewhere.
Because that doesn't seem to be a widespread phenomenon, Summers said, ''the real issue is the overall size of the pool, and it's less clear how much the size of the pool was held down by discrimination."
Summers ended his talk by describing some of the efforts Harvard is making to improve its hiring record and help women balance work and family.
''I believe that it's an important part of what I do to encourage frank scientific discussion," he said. ''I would hope and trust that no one could [doubt] that we are absolutely committed to promoting the diversity of the faculty."
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Re: سمرس، كبير مستشارى أوباوما للإقتصاد ذو موقف مخزى من النساء (Re: Khalid Kodi)
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Harvard women's group rips Summers
By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff | January 19, 2005
A suggestion by Harvard University's president, Lawrence H. Summers, that women may not have the same innate abilities in math and science as men has touched off an angry response from many Harvard professors, including members of a committee on women's issues who sent Summers a letter yesterday complaining that his remarks "impede our current efforts to recruit top women scholars."
In response, Summers wrote that he did not believe "that women lack the ability to succeed at the highest levels of math and science."
"I apologize for any adverse impact . . . on our common efforts to make steady progress in this critical area," he said in a return letter sent within hours of hearing from the committee.
Summers has emphasized that when he spoke Friday at a conference in Cambridge he was presenting provocative hypotheses based on the research of others, rather than offering his personal views. But the Harvard professors who are upset say that the president of a world-famous university does not have the luxury of speaking as an independent researcher.
"It is obvious that the president of a university never speaks entirely as an individual, especially when that institution is Harvard and when the issue on the table is so highly charged," said the letter from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences' Standing Committee on Women.
The Harvard campus was buzzing with reaction to Summers' remarks yesterday, and even as about 50 professors added their name to the committee's letter, some said it didn't go far enough in expressing their anger and disappointment.
Melissa Franklin, a physics professor, said she wished that Harvard had "a president who can add something positive rather than something negative." And while she didn't call for Summers to resign, she said his remarks constituted "a resignable thing."
"The biggest problem with female science students is confidence," Franklin said. "When they are sitting there constantly saying, 'Am I smart enough? Am I smart enough?' it doesn't really help when the president of the university says, 'Maybe you're not.' "
Summers' talk, first reported in the Globe, hit a nerve on campus because there was already widespread concern over the hiring record of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the main body of the university. Each academic year since Summers became president in 2001, the percentage of women offered tenured jobs has declined. In the last academic year, only four of 32 such offers were extended to women.
Summers has said numerous times that he wants to improve that record.
"Your letter is clearly right in suggesting that I misjudged the impact of my role as a conference participant," he said in his reply letter. "I had hoped to stimulate research on the many interrelated factors that bear on women's careers in science. I surely could have done a better job of framing that inquiry."
In his talk Friday at a conference on women and minorities in science and engineering, held at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Summers listed three possible explanations for the small number of women who excel at elite levels of science and engineering. He said he was deliberately being provocative, as he was asked to do by the organizers, and relying on the scholarship that was assembled for the conference rather than offering his own conclusions.
His first point was that women with children are often unwilling or unable to work 80-hour weeks. His second point was that in math and science tests, more males earn the very top scores, as well as the very bottom scores. He said that while no one knew why, "research in behavioral genetics is showing that things people attributed to socialization" might actually have a biological basis -- and that the issue needed to be studied further.
Several participants said that in making his second point, Summers suggested that women might not have the same "innate ability" or "natural ability" as men.
Summers' third point was about discrimination, and he said it was not clear that discrimination played a significant role in the shortage of women teaching science and engineering at top universities. However, he concluded by emphasizing that Harvard was taking many steps to boost diversity.
Summers' remarks were taped, but he has denied requests for a copy, saying it was a private, off-the-record meeting.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist Nancy Hopkins walked out on Summers' talk, and other participants also said they were offended. Others, however, were not, and one attendee yesterday said she was bewildered by the angry reaction.
"What he said was extremely interesting," said Claudia Goldin, an economics professor who is doing research on women in academia. "As academics, everyone should look under every rock they can find for the answers to difficult problems. Sometimes the rocks are large boulders and sometimes they have scary things under them."
The Standing Committee on Women, which sent the letter yesterday, has about 20 members.
"Your efforts to 'provoke' your audience did not serve our institution well," the letter said. "Indeed, they serve to reinforce an institutional culture at Harvard that erects numerous barriers to improving the representation of women on the faculty, and to impede our current efforts to recruit top women scholars."
The letter is now being circulated more widely at Harvard to be signed by other professors, whose names will be sent to Summers later this week.
Physics professor Howard Georgi, who is active on the issue of women in academia and is helping to circulate the committee's letter, said he considers Summers a friend and has written him an e-mail expressing disappointment. He also suggested that Summers' "slightly pugnacious style" of speaking may have been partly to blame for the effect of his remarks on conference participants, and said it "could be useful" for Summers to say he would try to moderate that.
Mary C. Waters, chair of the sociology department, said students upset about Summers' remarks have been coming to talk to her. She said his comments left her speechless.
"Has anyone asked if he thinks this about African-Americans, because they are underrepresented at this university? Are Hispanics inferior? Are Asians superior?" she said. "That's the road he's going down and I don't want to see any university go down that road."
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Re: سمرس، كبير مستشارى أوباوما للإقتصاد ذو موقف مخزى من النساء (Re: Khalid Kodi)
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الأخ ،Al-Mansour Jaafar
تحياتى وشكرا للمشاركه فى البوست،
وحقيقة ليس لدى إحصائيات علمية عن نسب الطالبات فى مجالات الرياضيات والفيزياء والعلوم فى أى مكان، ولا عن نجاحهن، ولكن بصورة "عامه" لا أعتقد أن هنالك أى فرق بين مقدرات الذكور والاناث فى التحصيل والتفوق فى أى مجال بما فى ذلك المجالات العلمية التى تحدث عنها سمرس.
كنت قد عاصرت هذه الفترة فى بوسطن، وبالطبع عاصرت النقاش فى الجامعات حول هذه الادعاءات والتى حركت نقاش أكاديمى ثرى بجانب المسيرات والكتابات الغاضبه.
وهنالك معلومات كثيرة عن ماترتب على مقولات سمر فى الشبكة.
عموما اليوم يشغل منصب الرئس فى جامعة هارفارد الدكتورة Catherine Drew Gilpin Faust
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/education/12harvard.html
ومنصب أكبر جامعه للعلوم والتكنلوجيا فى العالم إمرأه أيضا وهى Susan Hockfield
http://web.mit.edu/hockfield/
تحياتى مرة أخرى..
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Re: سمرس، كبير مستشارى أوباوما للإقتصاد ذو موقف مخزى من النساء (Re: Khalid Kodi)
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خالد كودي
سلام و احترام
انا ما زلت اصر ان الدفع باوباما للترشيح للرياسة كان ضمن اكبر مشروع لهزيمة و اقصاء المراة من التقدم و الريادة. هيلاري كلينتون كانت ستكون اكبر ضربة للذين يروجون بعجز المراة و عدم كفاءتها. الغريب في الامر، استطاع اليمين في الحزبين تسويق مشروعهم تحت غطاء اللون الذي وفرته بشرة اوباما و انطلت خدعتهم على اناس ما كنت اظن ان تمر عليهم.
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Re: سمرس، كبير مستشارى أوباوما للإقتصاد ذو موقف مخزى من النساء (Re: Badreldin Ahmed Musa)
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Badreldin Ahmed Musa
تحية وسلام،
| Quote: انا ما زلت اصر ان الدفع باوباما للترشيح للرياسة كان ضمن اكبر مشروع لهزيمة و اقصاء المراة من التقدم و الريادة. هيلاري كلينتون كانت ستكون اكبر ضربة للذين يروجون بعجز المراة و عدم كفاءتها. الغريب في الامر، استطاع اليمين في الحزبين تسويق مشروعهم تحت غطاء اللون الذي وفرته بشرة اوباما و انطلت خدعتهم على اناس ما كنت اظن ان تمر عليهم. |
لا أعتقد أن هنالك مجال لنظرية المؤامرة هنا، ولأننى من المؤيدين لبراك أوباما فى إعتقادى أن أوباما ذى مقدرات عاليه ولكنه إبن الحزب الديمقراطى فى نهاية الأمر.
فوز أوباما كان لأنه إبن حركة الحقوق المدنية من ناحية ومن الناحية الأخرى فهو لايشكل تهديد الى الأغلبية البيضاء ولا الى مصالحها بإعتبار أن له تاريخ ومصلحة مع نفس هذه الاغلبية.
باراك أوباما إمتلك مشروع ذكى، ومعبر عن حاجات الامركان فى هذا الوقت وتفوق على هلرى فى حملته الانتخابية كما هو معروف.
فكرة المنافسه مابين النوع والعرق شديدة التعقيد وإن تمت معالجتها مرارا هنا وهناك. دعنى أقول أن حركة حقوق النوع هى من إستفاد من حركة الحقوق المدنية ببعدها العرقى وليس العكس، وبالطبع يمكن التفصيل فى هذا فى مجال آخر.
هنا، فى هذا البوست نرجع الى أن الدكتور سمرس، رغم سيرته الذاتية الثرية والمليئة بالانجاز الا أن هذا الموقف من قضية المقدرات العقلية للمراة إبان تولية رئاسة جامعة هارفارد غير علمى، وهو ماأدى الى تقاعده عن رئاستها.
والدكتور سمر لدية مواقف ضد العمال و النقابات أيضا، فهو مؤمن ويعبر عن إقتصاد السوق الحر الراسمالى وفقا للمنهج اللبرالى المثالى التقليدى !!!!
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Khalid Kodi
Badreldin Ahmed Musa
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست