"One audience member, Sheila Tobias, said Summers struck her as "chastened, humbled, cautious and eager to please."
In other words, he is now a totally pussy-whipped beaten dog, emasculated and toeing the Feminist Party Line.
Pathetic.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7434945/Revisiting the debate on women in science
Harvard president carefully returns to hot subject
Reuters
Updated: 5:32 p.m. ET April 8, 2005
Harvard University President Lawrence Summers carefully waded back into the debate over women in science on Thursday, three months after his remarks on the topic sparked outrage among some faculty.
Sounding chastened and speaking slowly and cautiously, the former treasury secretary addressed the opening of a Harvard-sponsored symposium on the advancement of women in science.
Summers poked fun at himself at one point, referring to the uproar that arose when he asked whether the intrinsic differences between the sexes might help explain why so there are so few women professors in the sciences.
"I suppose I've done my part over these last several months to increase interest in these topics," Summers said amid chuckles from the mostly female audience.
"I wish that interest in these topics had been increased in a somewhat different fashion," he added. "But I believe that with the focus that now exists ... we have an opportunity to do some things that are truly important."
Vote of no-confidence
There were scattered calls for Summers' resignation after reports of his comments, and last month he lost an extraordinary but nonbinding vote of confidence by Harvard's undergraduate faculty -- several of whom said they were more upset with his overall leadership style than his remarks.
Summers has refused to step down and has pledged to change his tone, listen better to the Harvard community and do more to draw women to science and engineering.
On Thursday, he said it was crucial for both his university and for the United States to expand the search for scientific talent as widely as possible.
Lesson learned
He also said he had learned all too well that what happens at Harvard has enormous resonance beyond the Ivy League.
"This has, as you can imagine, been a period of substantial and intense immersion in education for me," he said.
One audience member, Sheila Tobias, said Summers struck her as "chastened, humbled, cautious and eager to please."Tobias, who was present when Summers delivered his controversial remarks in January, said she came away from Thursday's speech with a favorable impression, particularly since Summers appeared to acknowledge the role bias plays in deciding which people go on to do certain jobs.
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