I really don't see why Larry Summers needed to make an abject apology for merely suggesting the possibility that, along with other possible factors, including discrimination, innate differences between men and women may play a role in the disparity between men and women going into the sciences. To my knowledge, the subject of the influence of male-female differences on career choices and competencies is widely debated within academia among those who specialize in related fields. And we've certainly come along way from the day when the "experts" thought it was okay to raise a boy born with mangled genetalia as a girl because he would simply be socialized as a girl and never known the difference, given that all male-female differences are "socially constructed" (though I continue to hear the latter line from individuals "educated" at our elite universities [edit: though never from anyone who majored in science]).

I can see the argument that perhaps statistical generalizations will give aid and comfort to those who are inclined to begin with to discriminate against the group in question (even though logically they are given no quarter by the generalization: even if, for example, Jews are less likely than Gentiles to be tall enough to play professional basketball, you don't turn down Dolph Shayes when he shows up at training camp). But I think the outrage expressed goes beyond that. I find that people have difficulty understanding that broad statistical generalizations don't justify leaping to conclusions about individuals. I once heard of a professor who gave a faculty workshop at a major law school in which the speaker pointed out that adoptive and step-parents are far more likely to abuse their children than are natural parents. The speaker noted, of course, that the vast majority of adoptive and step-parents don't abuse their children, it's just that they are far more likely to compared with natural parents. Nevertheless, informed sources tell me that adoptive and stepparents in the audience were gravely and personally offended, and accused the speaker of promoting Nazi-like theories of biological merit. I simply can't understand this logic. How do you get from "the vast majority of adoptive parents don't abuse their children, but are more likely than biological parents to abuse their children" to "you, as an adoptive parent, are under suspicion" for abusing your child? And unlike the continuing nature/nurture debate with regard to women's career choices, my understanding is that the higher rate of abuse among non-natural parents is a documented fact, but that didn't stop the outrage.

On the other hand, because so many people, even very smart law professor-types, do seem to have problems with how statistical generalizations relate to individual cases, maybe Summers did indeed put his foot into his mouth. By even suggesting the possibility that men and women, as broad statistical groups, have different natural interests and talents, Summers was inevitably interpreted by many as saying "maybe it's okay to discriminate against talented women in math and science." Part of being a university president is not just being clever and saying interesting things, but understanding how your public audience, logically or not, will react to what you say.

And finally, an interesting First Amendment question: if a female scientist who is denied tenure at Harvard decides to sue, can use Summers' speech as evidence of Harvard's discriminatory intent?