My Daughter Responds

My oldest daugther Rosemarie, who just happened to have achieved a perfect score on her calculus placement exam, and is currently working toward her PsyD - has been following this blog and all the assorted comments relating to the remarks by the President of Harvard. After doing some reading on her own, she writes to me with these interesting observations:

In this month's Monitor on Psychology published by the American Psychological Association, there is an article about studying genetic differences. Although it is about race, it also talks about tools and research studying genetic differences. A quote:

"New and sophisticated methods for studying the relationship between human genetic differences, the environment, health and behavior, all made possible by the completion of the Human Genome Project, have made traditional race-based measurements of human differences" [I would add any biologically-based measure, including gender] "obsolete."-Thus, even if Mr. Summers was quoting actual reasearch, unless it was completed since the completion of the Human Genome Project, the methods used to measure gender aptitude differences are obsolete. Since all humans are shaped and influenced by the environment from the moment they are born, it is necessary to discover specific genetic differences to support the assertion that women are biologically inferior in mathematical and scientific abilities. Even if these genetic differences are discovered, it has been well-documented in the research literature that genes can be altered by the environment, both pre- and post-natally. At this time, I am not aware of any such research that exists that supports biological differences and shows specific genetic differences between the genders in math and science abilities. Thus, it appears that Mr. Summers' remarks were not only unfounded but based on obsolete research.

Just thought I'd add to the conversation.

Rosemarie