“There are probably quite a few members of the Harvard faculty who actually believe that there is an innate difference between girls and boys in science skill,” said Franklin, the Mallinckrodt professor of physics. “Now that this is brought up, maybe all the ensuing discussion will be able to convince those people otherwise.”
The two co-chairs of the Radcliffe Union of Students, Dara F. Goodman ’07 and Giselle B. Schuetz ’07, said they hoped Summers would back his words with concrete actions to bolster the position of female scientists at Harvard.
“I think he made a lot of positive strides,” said Goodman, “but the next step he can take to prove his commitment to women in the sciences is to start tenuring them.”
Schuetz, a history of science concentrator, said that she and many of her friends individually e-mailed Summers to express their frustration with his remarks.
Nancy Hopkins ’64, the MIT biologist who first reported Summers’ comments to the media, said yesterday she was not impressed by the president’s letter.
“One still has to be deeply concerned about what he said on Friday,” Hopkins said. “Unfortunately, there really isn’t yet any convincing evidence that he was misunderstood.”
In his letter on Wednesday, Summers wrote that he “had learned a great deal from all that I have heard in the last few days.”
“The many compelling e-mails and calls that I have received have made vivid the very real barriers faced by women in pursuing scientific and other academic careers,” Summers wrote.
At the request of symposium organizers, Summers delivered a luncheon talk to 50 academics in which he presented several hypotheses to explain the scarcity of female scientists at top universities.
Summers has said that he did not expect the remarks to be published. His spokeswoman, Lucie McNeil, said yesterday she had a recording of the event but would not release it.
Wednesday’s apology came after a letter Summers sent Tuesday night responding to the standing committee in which he wrote that he “had hoped to stimulate research on many interrelated factors that bear on women’s careers in science.”
“I misjudged the impact of my role as a conference participant,” he wrote Tuesday.
The full text of Summers’ letter is available online at www.president.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Zachary M. Seward can be reached atseward@fas.harvard.edu.