Ethics Discussion

In commenting on a declining amount of women in scholarship in higher education Harvard President Lawrence Summers offered three possible explanations, in declining order of importance, for the small number of women in high-level positions in science and engineering. The first was the reluctance or inability of women who have children to work 80-hour weeks.The second point was that fewer girls than boys have top scores on science and math tests in late high school years. ''I said no one really understands why this is, and it's an area of ferment in social science," Summers said in an interview Saturday.

''Research in behavioral genetics is showing that things people previously attributed to socialization weren't" due to socialization after all.This was the point that most angered some of the listeners, several of whom said Summers said that women do not have the same ''innate ability" or ''natural ability" as men in some fields.

Asked about this, Summers said, ''It's possible I made some reference to innate differences. . . I did say that you have to be careful in attributing things to socialization. . . That's what we would prefer to believe, but these are things that need to be studied."Summers said cutting-edge research has shown that genetics are more important than previously thought, compared with environment or upbringing. As an example, he mentioned autism, once believed to be a result of parenting but now widely seen to have a genetic basis. (Boston Globe: 1-17-2005)

Doesn t the Ethics of care require that Women think differently, or that there is a Feminine way of thinking? Are the former Harvard Presidents comments, then, incompatible with the theories behind the ethics of care ?

What would a feminine scholar of the ethics of care say about the Presidents forced resignation?What do you think about inherent differences between women and men? Are there inherent difference, and if so - what are they?