NAS Blog

Today’s New York Times features John Tierney’s followup to his piece last week about attempts to legislate “gender equity,” which he concludes will never work: a mixture of innate biological factors and individual career choices, rather than a “glass ceiling” or deliberate discrminination account for the statistical disparities between men and women in fields such as physics or mechanical engineering. Tierney cites a solid body of research to bolster his conclusion – including the stellar work of our friend Christina Sommers – but the comments thread indicates that, where this subject is concerned, ideology still reigns supreme for many others. The gap can be explained by “gender bias,” case closed. Unfortunately, Congress seems to be listening to the ideologues at the moment.