Kate Zernike has an important piece in today's New York Times entitled, Gains, and Drawbacks, for Female Professors. The article resonates for me and touches on many of the same issues we discussed last Fall at L'Oreal/Discover's "Women in Science" Capitol Hill Briefing. While the tremendous accomplishments of women in science speak for themselves, ridiculous statements by those who should know better--
like former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers
--continue to echo in the public discourse. For example, Zernike points out that male undergraduates at M.I.T. tell female classmates they were only accepted because of affirmative action. Faculty members face new struggles as well. While universities are working to increase diversity, some criticize these efforts because they believe women gain an unfair advantage. Compounding matters, women are frequently sought for committees and panels to satisfy gender requirements. Since there are still not many female faculty members, individuals are overburdened, leaving ...
