Dr. Isis and I recently had similar reactions to John Tierney's NYTime's piece Daring to Discuss Women's Potential in Science. What's so "daring" John? It's been discussed. Over and over and over and back again. I was as bored as Isis, until I reached his uh, "daring" question:
I'm all in favor of women fulfilling their potential in science, but I feel compelled, at the risk of being shipped off to one of these workshops, to ask a couple of questions: 1) Would it be safe during the "interactive discussions" for someone to mention the new evidence supporting Dr. Summers's controversial hypothesis about differences in the sexes' aptitude for math and science? And then I was just frustrated. I mean really, do we have to continue to "debate" this? Sure it sparks a lively comment thread, but I'm tired of it. Furthermore there are so many aspects of gender disparity Tierney fails to mention that have a role in academic performance. So I wasn't impressed and decided not to re-write the same post I've composed countless times in the past. Fortunately, the domestic and laboratory goddess did have the stomach to respond, so go take a look...