The president of Harvard University Dr.
Lawrence Summers raised more than one eyebrow last Friday when he spoke at a
conference on women in science and engineering. Dr. Summers suggested that
the fact that women don’t succeed in science and math career is due principally to
three hypotheses.
He stated that the first hypothesis is the reluctance or inability of women who have
children to work 80 hour per week; the second hypothesis is that women don’t have
the same innate ability or natural ability as men in some fields; and the third hypothesis
is the possibility of discrimination against women. Also, Dr. Summers discounted
somewhat the possibility of discrimination as the Free Market would correct
such economic inefficiency; however, he added that further research should be done
on these three hypotheses.
Last year, at Harvard University, only four of thirty-two tenure job openings
were offered to women, as a consequence we can figure out the natural abilities of
free marketeer Dr. Summers.
Dr. Summers’ preaching of the Free Market was encapsulated in a memo
he wrote on December 12, 1991 while he was Chief Economist at the World Bank.
In this memo he wrote:
"The measurements of the costs of health impairing pollution
depends on the foregone earnings from increased morbidity and mortality. From this
point of view a given amount of health impairing pollution should be done in the
country with the lowest cost, which will be the country with the lowest wages. I
think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage
country is impeccable and we should face up to that."
It is my understanding that we cannot ever alleviate poverty, defeat plaguing diseases,
end wars and have a more equitable society with this neoconservative mentality as
expressed by Dr. Summers: a tunneled vision of humanity based on further hypothesized
researches and their consequential impeccable economic policies.
