NBC News highlights report on "women and science"

The NBC Nightly News (Brian Williams) on 18 Sept shifted stories to one captioned Women and Science with a report from Donna Shalala, now Prez of Univ. of Miami. There was an allusion to problems in the women/science interface involving a former Harvard president (Summers) although no name was given on television. Both Summers and Shalela were in the Clinton cabinet. [Summers contended back in January 2006 that boys outperform girls in science and math because of genetic differences.]

DS: Tenure decisions are made during prime child bearing years.

The entire report may be found here .

The report is titled Broad National Effort Urgently Needed
To Maximize Potential of Women Scientists and Engineers in Academia and begins with the text:

Women face barriers to hiring and promotion in research universities in many fields of science and engineering -- a situation that deprives the United States of an important source of talent as the country faces increasingly stiff global competition in higher education, science and technology, and the marketplace, says a new report from the National Academies [NAS]. Eliminating gender bias in universities requires immediate, overarching reform and decisive action by university administrators, professional societies, government agencies, and Congress.

Several others were on the committee, including Robert J. Birgeneau.

The "working mothers" report, which was pre-empted to allow presentation of Women and Science, is to appear on 19 Sept.

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Back in January, IPBiz had noted of Summers/Harvard: And of course the Harvard Law Review says the PTO grants 97% of patent applications, and there was Laurence Tribe's plagiarism. Is it the water?