And Summers is the President of an apparently eminent academic institution! Where exactly are the academic skills in his speech? A bunch of waffly, spurious connections and anecdotes from Summers. Damaging stuff. What a fabulous connection he makes between the conversations of his very young twins and his theory that all females are predisposed to child-rearing ...

"I guess my experience with my two and a half year old twin daughters who were not given dolls and who were given trucks, and found themselves saying to each other, look, daddy truck is carrying the baby truck, tells me something."

Reading this article I was reminded of another article containing the lines:-

“Feminist organizations seem to be in a desperate hunt for a cause. In that quest, they are starting to sound downright silly”
by Kay Daly (a she, so it’s safe to read) in “Feminist Follies” http://www.opinioneditorials.com/guestcontributors/kdaly_20050301.html

And also

“It is hard for the average person to take the recent Harvard fracas over sex differences seriously”
by Janice Shaw Crouse (another safe article written by a female) in “Rejecting ideological tyranny” http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GuestColumns/Crouse20050323.shtml

More interesting thoughts in this last article :-“For the radical feminists, equality of opportunity is not enough. It is no longer sufficient to have empowerment to achieve their potential. They seek control: acquiring pure power for its own sake.”

Now if the evil Prof Summers said the wrong thing, then what was the right thing, OR what is acceptable for a male to say about female gender and what is not?

Can a male say the following:- Compared to men- women wear more dresses, grow their hair longer, carry more handbags, and wear more cosmetics?

Is this acceptable to say, yes / no?

What about:- Compared to men- women prefer to wear more dresses, prefer to grow their hair longer, prefer to carry more handbags, and prefer to wear more cosmetics.

Is this acceptable to say, yes / no?

What about :- Compared to men- women prefer to do courses that contain less science and trade work.

Feminists must come clean at some time, and perhaps write a manifesto that details clearly and exactly what men can / cannot say regards the female gender. That way everyone will know.

And while they’re at it, they could also include what feminists can / can’t say about the male gender.

But within Australia, one cannot go past the Social Scientist Dr Susan Maushart http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,4040621%255E17282,00.html, who’s contribution to Australian Social Science seems to involve making highly maligning comments regards the male gender and her own children each and every week in The Weekend Australian. But not much objection ever shown from Australian feminists regards that.

Even if what the Havard man says is true, he shouldn't have said it. But we're more the merrier for it.

I think its futile to try to even measure womens/mens success in fields of academic enterprise, after all, its NOT a competition !
The simple fact, illustrated by the responses of some women who were asked why they took on part time work rather than full time academia was the issue of home life, and 'second shift' but the undeniable and irrefutable biological fact is, women are designed as the vehicle of child bearing and of nurture in the early stages of a new young persons life.
I feel a better approach is also not to speak of 'gender bias' when the bias in inherantly biological. It is a natural outcome of these complementary differences, and the reality of children and home life, that should wake us all up to the fact that we are in it together.

Instead of women saying 'remove the gender bias' so we can have the same academic stats as men'.. why not explain the reasons for it and get with the program of not being in competition ! Rejoice in your womenhood, blossom in child nuture, celebrate your academic acheivements, but don't seek to be 'like men', just seek to be ur best in the context of what you are.

Maths, science, art and english were my top subjects at school. Excelled at them and loved them - no one told me I shouldn't be any good at maths just because I was a girl.

I don't know why Boaz sees any posts promoting equality of opportunity as a competition. Not all women make great mothers, not all men make great fathers either. To impose motherhood or fatherhood on those who aren't willing is very wrong.

There is no reason why the workplace shouldn't become more family oriented this would free up men as much as women. A lot of men are more interested in their families than pursuing a career.

I don't want to be like a man - I don't know any women who do (except for Robbie but that's another story).

I have 2 children and manage to balance caring for them with my landscape business - like many women I wound up self employed to find the flexibility I need for my career and my family. I have a full life as a result and wouldn't have it any other way. My children were in child care from an early age and their social skills are way superior to mine when I was their age.

I will never rise to great heights in my profession because of the constraints of my family responsibilities and this is true for many women. This is why we still don't have equal representation in the higher levels of academic achievement. Larry Summers has not looked at the big picture and, unfortunately, his remarks will bring out the misogynists as this forum has demonstrated.

Ringtail,
Your repeated claims that there are “misogynists” in this forum are definitely in need of substantiation and much clarification (ie specific details are now necessary).

Many men forego their careers for family. If they wanted more money or to further their careers they could get a job working in a mine or on an oil rig somewhere, where they can earn considerable income, but they may also be working 12 hr shifts (often in very harsh working conditions) and maybe have 4 days off per fortnight etc. The opportunity is there for many men, but they don’t take it because they would rather be closer to their families.

Instead many men do that type of work to earn money to get married, put a deposit on a house and start a family. However with the current divorce rate, (together with the almost guaranteed separation of the father from their children that goes with it), that dream becomes a nightmare for many, if not most fathers in today’s society.

What is most noticeable, is the almost complete absence of comment by feminists and many women on articles that malign the male gender(and there are many such articles, advertisements, TV shows, movies etc), while almost any comment by males about the female gender is instantly attacked, and labelled as “misogynist”.

A question for you, is what can a male now say about the female gender, and what can’t they say about the female gender?

And also, what can the female gender say about the male gender and what can’t they say about the male gender?

And also, is it acceptable to be continuously labelling someone (male or female) as misogynist without any specific details being given, or is this generalized “flameing”.