Harvard Rules in Vanity Fair
James Wolcott has a terrific piece in the June
Vanity Fair called "Caution: Women Seething." One guess who's a centerpiece of the story.
Wolcott's thesis about what happened at Harvard: "What exploded...was a protracted buildup of exasperation over the persistent under-representation of women in positions of prominence and authority, and the mulish inability of powerful men to recognize the scope of the problem, or their tendency instead to rationalize it with voodoo genetics and Victorian-parlor sociology."
Quite so. And as I've often written, the complete lack of women (and minorities) in high academic positions in the Summers administration is not just an embarrassment for Harvard—it's a volcano waiting to erupt. I keep hoping for someone (someone else, that is) to mention that it'd be nice if Harvard showed the world that it has at least one African-American person working for the university.... Or one Asian-American...or one Latino.
This is not about political correctness. Any university which claims to value diversity within its student body should make that diversity a reality within its administration.
As we all learned in kindergarten, it's so important to practice what you preach....
Oh, almost forgot: Thanks to Wolcott for mentioning
Harvard Rules. I'm a great fan of his, so it's nice to be on his radar screen.
