Question

The President of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, was an invited speaker at a recent conference sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research on the issue of gender and minority differences in top-level positions of science, math, and engineering. At that meeting, he acknowledged many of the traditionally-stated reasons for such gender differences but also brought up the possibility that biology and genetics might play a role in these differences.

According to news reports of the meeting, some participants viewed his remarks as “healthily provocative” while others were offended. A small furor erupted and Dr. Summers “eventually apologized for his remarks” (http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/20/harvard.summers.ap/).

Using all your knowledge about what you have been taught thus far in this course (and, of course, all that you have been taught in other courses), write a coherent two-paragraph statement on how genetic differences between men and women might or might not contribute to the observed prevalence of men over women in academic positions of math, science, and engineering.