Summers Addendum

Since even the great Bob Somerby is claiming that Larry Summers is under fire for “asking the most obvious question on earth,” it seems worth emphasizing a couple of points:

• Larry Summers did not simply pose questions, but repeatedly offered what he believed to be the answers, despite a shaky grasp of the underlying data.

• More importantly, we must consider the context. I agree that if Summers were coming under fire merely for saying some stupid things this would be overblown. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.If Summers had a good record of recruiting and retaining female faculty, I wouldn’t care very much if endorsed every reactionary pseudo-scientific just-so story that Steve Pinker sends down the pike. But, of course, Summers has an atrocious record in these areas. When a university has a terrible record of hiring and retaining women, and the president claims that biological essentialism and women “choosing” to raise children explain these failures–well, if you don’t expect a serious backlash, you’ll get what you deserve. (And, of course, the idea that it’s impossible to express male chauvinist ideas in this society tend to be belied by Summers’ many defenders in the media.) Anyway, I’m sure that women would happily give away this alleged right to determine what’s “p.c.” if they could get the jobs instead…