Ethics Newsline®

BOSTON
Harvard University last week said it will invest at least $50 million over the next 10 years to bolster the role of women on its faculty, acknowledging that it was lagging in reforming a culture built to favor men.

The announcement follows months of internal arguments and debate over the role of women at Harvard, much of it prompted by a statement from President Lawrence Summers in January that the lack of women in the fields of science and engineering might be caused partially by “intrinsic aptitude.”

Summers’ comment caused a firestorm and sparked the formation of two task forces, which released their reports last week and called for a series of reforms to improve the numbers and security of female and minority faculty.

The two reports shared an introduction, which opened by noting, “In spite of more than three decades of concern, Harvard has made only limited progress in its efforts to create a genuinely diverse faculty.”

Last year, women received only four of the 32 tenure offers made by Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, its central body, reported the Associated Press. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences passed a symbolic no-confidence vote in Summers in March.

Reports from the Associated Press and Boston Globe noted that Harvard has fallen behind other premier U.S. universities such as Duke and the MIT in conducting a thorough review of gender issues on campus.

Summers last week conceded as much, saying Harvard would adopt immediately some of the task forces’ recommendations — establishing a senior administrative post to promote faculty diversity, for example — and evaluate others for strategic implementation.

“The objective is not just (to put forward) a set of recommendations, but to bring about a set of very important cultural changes,” Summers told the Globe. ”Universities like Harvard were designed a long time ago by men and for men. To fully succeed on these issues, we’re going to have to address issues of culture.”