Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2005
Keywords
gender bias, racial privilege, affirmative action
Abstract
This mini commentary is written in response to a public speech made by Lawrence Summers, then President of Harvard University in 2005 in which he asserted that the under-representation of women in science and engineering may be due in part to biological differences in abilities between women and men. This commentary argues that Summers' remarks constitute a brief against affirmative action for women stated so broadly that it easily encompasses objections to affirmative action for blacks and other non-white Americans. It concludes that our inability or unwillingness to make connections between gender bias and racial privilege helps to maintain a status quo dominated by affluent, white males, a situation that disadvantages us all.
Publication Citation
11 Cardozo Women's Law Journal 501 (2005).
Disciplines
Civil Rights and Discrimination | Law | Law and Gender
Digital Commons Citation
Banks, Taunya Lovell, "Lawrence Summers at the NBER Conference: The Real Deal" (2005). Faculty Scholarship. 131.
https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/fac_pubs/131