Talking the Talk
Well, what do you know? Larry Summers
gave a talk last night at a Harvard symposium on women in science and reversed course 180 degrees from his January remarks at the NBER conference. This time, Summers spoke about the "implicit bias" that many women face, referring to studies that show journal articles are more accepted when they come with a man's byline rather than a woman's. He also spoke of how female musicians have done better in auditions when performing behind a screen, so that the judges did not know their gender. (That example appears to suggest that Summers has read Malcolm Gladwell's
Blink, which would make sense—he loves pop-science like Steve Pinker and Michael Lewis'
Money Ball.)
The speech has been picked up by the
Boston Globe (see link above),
Reuters, and
InsideHigherEd.com.
Is Summers' conversion genuine? It may not matter. Summers changed his public attitude towards affirmative action a couple years ago, and even though his private opinion didn't change, the public stance he took made a difference. Regarding the status of women at Harvard, the proof of Summers' sincerity will be, as they say, in the pudding.
Meantime, I hope that Summers' words get widespread distribution. It's only fair. Since his January comments were reported all over the world, this new perspective should get equal time.
