Today the New York Times ran an article by John Tierney titled "Daring to Discuss Women in Science." Sounds brave!
The subject of Tierney's article is a piece of legislation just passed by the House called "Fulfilling the potential of women in academic science and engineering." According to Tierney, who's dubbed it "Larry's Law," this legislation is mainly a reaction to the controversy over former Harvard president Larry Summers. You may remember his comments in 2005 about women in science and math. He suggested that a lack of female professors in these areas might not be due to biased hiring, but to an innate difference in women's abilities. Larry Summers doesn't work for Harvard anymore. He does work for Barack Obama, though.
Tierney says:
This proposed law, if passed by the Senate, would require the White House science adviser to oversee regular “workshops to enhance gender equity.” At the workshops, ...
