I can't tell you how excited I am for us to have our first Taking Sides debate on Friday! Our first topic deals with the fields of math and science and ask if success is biologically based and favors men or is there something to this cultural approach to gender? If you ask Harvard University President, Larry Summers, he would tell you that the answer is yes there is a biological difference and that males are more predisposed to have careers in these fields. Here's a link to a 2005 news article in The Crimson about Summers' comments - http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/1/14/summers-comments-on-women-and-science/. Two Harvard professors tackle this issue. Steven Pinker reviews arguments supporting the claim that there is a biological basis for gender differences in math and science. Elizabeth Spelke argues that the under representation of women in the sciences is due to environmental factors.
So this week's question is - what side do you take and why?
No comments:
Post a Comment