Gotta Love Harvard's Larry Summers

"Gender Slurs" and "Sexist Remarks" are just some of the headlines being hurled at Harvard University President Larry Summers for his recent speculations about why there are relatively few women scientists during a National Bureau of Economic Research Conference.

Summers claimed that many women choose not work the 80 hour weeks required to get to the top of the scientific and engineering heaps because they want to devote more time to their children. Setting aside Summers' views on women's preferences regarding child rearing, there certainly are average cognitive differences between men and women that will have some effect on which careers they are likely to choose. Of course, all people should be judged as individuals, not as representatives of some "average." On the other hand, while we should definitely be attentive to gender disparities, they are not necessarily always the result of oppressive social discrimination.