The Hindu Business Line : Intellectual tsunami

IT HAS been variously described as male chauvinism, a firestorm, a maelstrom and even an intellectual tsunami. The rather overblown ballyhoo, now raging over the Western media, has been kicked off by the reported remarks of the Harvard University President, Mr Lawrence H. Summers, that women were genetically at a disadvantage in making successful careers in the fields of science and mathematics.

While his audience gasped, one woman professor walked out as she felt "physically ill".

The Harvard faculty and the student community have come out with acerbic statements condemning the implied categorisation of the fair sex as inferior and being incapable of pursuing courses and research in science and mathematics.

As in all such cases, there are others, including women, who have sprung to the defence of Mr Summers' right to express his opinion freely. He later issued a public apology saying that he was merely posing a rhetorical question and not making a categorical assertion.

Is there any basis for Mr Summers' hypothesis?

It has long been known that men's brains are larger than women's by about 100 grams and there are at least 100 sex differences in male and female brains.

Also, many ailments seem to be influenced by gender; for instance, women are more prone to certain neurological ailments. But they also live longer than men. Of course, they are more sensitive and intuitive, and are more committed to values and religious tenets than men are.

As regards science and mathematics, their lack of interest, if any, may have more to do with the subtle discrimination to which they are subjected. A report of the Harvard's Graduate School of Education, prepared in 2002, says that there is a high level of dissatisfaction among academic women at research institutions and, as a rule, they do not progress as fast as their male colleagues.

Another study carried out at the University of California at Berkeley has found that for each year after securing a tenure-track job, male assistant professors are 23 per cent more likely than their female counterparts to earn tenure.

And for each year after earning tenure, male professors are 35 per cent more likely than their female colleagues to be named full professors. Anyway, generalisations are always to be eschewed, as Mr Summers has learnt to his cost.

B. S. Raghavan

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