In the Globe, [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/10/20/women_science_and_gender_bias/ Cathy Young updates the discussion] on women, science and gender.

THE DEBATE over women's place in science, which proved to be the downfall of Harvard President Lawrence Summers after he suggested that male preeminence in the field could be due at least partly to biological traits and personal choices, remains a lightning rod for controversy. Earlier this month, the subject was tackled in two different symposiums - one at Harvard, the other at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based right-of-center think tank.

(Can we trust a writer who makes an egregious mistake in the very first sentence of her story?)

Young, who is a libertarian, is most concerned about government intervention in the debate.

The discussion of gender and science is not mere theory. It has to do with practical plans to remake the scientific establishment in a woman-friendly image. Many proposals are innocuous enough, and some are being implemented at many schools: extending the tenure clock for new parents and other measures to help combine scientific careers with family responsibilities. But there is also talk of programs to eradicate subtle and unconscious biases (which sounds like a prescription for politically correct witch hunts) and of invoking Title IX of the Civil Rights Act to bring down the wrath of the federal government on institutions that are purportedly too slow to correct inequalities in science.

Invoking Title IX? I haven't heard of this, but I'll take Young's word for it. Nothing could be more damaging to women scientists, of course, than affirmative action not of socioeconomic status, but of the mind.....