at the high end = at the well-educated proportion of the population?

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Summers also served as the 27th President of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. Summers resigned as Harvard's president in the wake of a no-confidence vote by Harvard faculty that resulted in large part from Summers' conflict with Cornel West, financial conflict of interest questions regarding his relationship with Andrei Shleifer, and a 2005 speech in which he suggested that the under-representation of women in science and engineering could be due to a "different availability of aptitude at the high end,"

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Type: Question • Score: 0 • Views: 855 • Replies: 6

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View best answer, chosen by oristarA

@oristarA,

He is not discussing wealth but mental ability such as abstraction considered in the 'high end' of mental ability. He was roundly criticized for this statement by feminists for he says women are not that smart.

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@talk72000,

The word 'aptitude' is the clue to mental ability.

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@talk72000,

talk72000 wrote:

He is not discussing wealth but mental ability such as abstraction considered in the 'high end' of mental ability. He was roundly criticized for this statement by feminists for he says women are not that smart.

talk72000 wrote:

The word 'aptitude' is the clue to mental ability.

Thank you.

Would anyone like to add up something further? Coz Summers' comment was, in some schlars' eye, misinterpreted by feminists.

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@oristarA,

If you consider aptitude for a certain ability as a curve from low to high with most people being in the middle, the "high end" refers to the very top, the most capable in the field. For example, if you were talking about the population of people who can run a mile in under four and a half minutes, there are a lot more men than women because men are stronger. Sumner was suggesting that inherent differences in men and women related to math and science meant that at the very top of the field there were many more men available. The controversial part is his assertion that men are inherently better than women at math and science.

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@engineer,

engineer wrote:

If you consider aptitude for a certain ability as a curve from low to high with most people being in the middle, the "high end" refers to the very top, the most capable in the field. For example, if you were talking about the population of people who can run a mile in under four and a half minutes, there are a lot more men than women because men are stronger. Sumner was suggesting that inherent differences in men and women related to math and science meant that at the very top of the field there were many more men available. The controversial part is his assertion that men are inherently better than women at math and science.

Excellent!

Thank you.

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Just one of quite a lot of rash, controversial and widely disagreed with statements tthat are often thought to have contributed to his resignation as president of Harvard.

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at the high end = at the well-educated proportion of the population?

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