Lawrence Summers resigns!

<p><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">A bit over a year since his inflammatory remarks about women's possible innate lack of ability in mathematics and science, </font><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Summers"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">Lawrence Summers</font></a><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000"> </font><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/02/22/summers_to_step_down_ending_tumult_at_harvard/"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">announces his resignation as President of Harvard University</font></a><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">.   The fact that these remarks were made at a conference that focused on increasing women's and girls' participation in these areas, simply made the remarks that much more outrageous and damaging.  Though Summers' sexism is outrageous, let us not forget that Lawrence Summers began his bigoted behavior by hassling </font><a href="http://www.npr.org/about/press/020415.cwest.html"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">Cornel West</font></a><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">, </font><a href="http://www.npr.org/about/press/020415.cwest.html"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">causing the prestigious African-American studies scholar move from Harvard to Princeton</font></a><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">.  </font></p><p><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">Women who work in traditionally male fields like many sciences and technology are subjected to enough hostility and doubt.  We don't need a university president proclaiming his bigoted views.  I belong to an email list for women in technology called </font><a href="http://www.systers.org/"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">Systers</font></a><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">, started by </font><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Borg"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000">Anita Borg</font></a><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000"> in 1987.  One woman who wrote a message on the list was one of six <a href="http://www.witi.com/center/witimuseum/halloffame/1997/eniac.php">original people who programmed the ENIAC</a>.  What her professional life must have been like!  I can't begin to extrapolate from my experience the insults and injustices that she must have experienced.  Here's to all the science and tech women who persevere to pave the way for our future Systers!</font></p>

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