ABSTRACT
During the time Lawrence Summers was the president of Harvard University, he made remarks contending that women’s progress in scientifi c careers has been slow because women may lack the talent to succeed in science and engineering. His remarks were incendiary, causing a fi restorm of protest (as well as voices of support). The suggestion that women’s lack of intrinsic ability is to blame for their underrepresentation in science and engineering shows the tendency to resort to biological essentialism to explain gender differences. Indeed, Summers mentioned social factors and discrimination as less important than intrinsic ability for success in academic science careers (“Remarks at NBER,” 2005). This tendency to focus on innate differences and to downplay social factors is one way that people maintain stereotypes and prejudice (Keller, 2005). Neuroscientist Ben Barres (2006) responded to Summers’s remarks by questioning if a scientist’s gender matters.
