Harvard President Issues an Apology for Remarks

Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers apologized late Wednesday for his remarks last week suggesting that innate differences might make women less capable of succeeding at math and science than men, and acknowledged that his comments sent “an unintended signal of discouragement to talented girls and women.”

In a letter addressed to “members of the Harvard Community,” Summers said: “I deeply regret the impact of my comments and apologize for not having weighed them more carefully.”

The latest letter followed a terse statement posted on Summers’ website in which he said his remarks in a speech Friday had been “misconstrued” to imply that women could not succeed in advanced math and science. Summers also sent a letter Wednesday to members of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences Standing Committee on Women in reply to a letter the group sent Summers voicing concern about his remarks here to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

In contrast to his earlier statements, Summers’ letter to the Harvard community seemed contrite: “I have learned a great deal from all that I have heard in the last few days,” he wrote. “The many compelling e-mails and calls that I have received have made vivid the very real barriers faced by women in pursuing scientific and other academic careers.”

But the university president’s acknowledgment of the effect of his speech to the nonprofit group’s economics conference came amid rising anger among some students and faculty members -- especially women.

“Apology or no apology, a lot of damage has been done by reinforcing these stereotypes,” said economics professor Caroline M. Hoxby, a member of the committee on women who has been at Harvard for about 11 years.

Summers has declined to elaborate on his address, in which he also contended, according to published reports, that women might be less inclined to advance to top levels in science because they were unwilling to work long, grueling hours once they had children.

Summers spoke from notes, not a prepared speech. Although his remarks were taped, no transcript of the speech was made available. Summers declined interview requests.

His address so offended MIT biologist Nancy Hopkins that she left the conference, later telling the Harvard Crimson newspaper that Summers’ remarks had made her feel ill.

Summers’ comments added to an ongoing controversy at Harvard about the decline in tenured professorships for women in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the university’s primary academic body.

The percentage of women offered tenured positions has dropped every year since Summers became president in 2001. Four of 32 tenure offers in the Arts and Sciences faculty were extended to women in the last academic year.

In a letter to Summers, the committee on women said his comments about women “serve to reinforce an institutional culture at Harvard that erects numerous barriers to improving the representation of women on the faculty, and to impede our current efforts to recruit top women scholars.”

“They also send at best mixed signals to our high-achieving women students in Harvard College and in the graduate and professional schools,” the letter added.

More than 65 faculty members added their names to those of the 12 committee members who originally signed the letter.

Hoxby said she had received many e-mails from female students who were troubled by Summers’ comments. Hoxby also said several women had contacted her to say they were concerned that Summers’ remarks would affect the atmosphere for female faculty at Harvard.

In his letter to the university community, Summers vowed, “We will fulfill our promise as an academic community only if we draw as broadly and deeply as we can on the talents of outstanding women as well as men.”