In the wake of Harvard President Lawrence Summers' remarks about inequality between women and men in the sciences, Harvard officials have announced the creation of two new University committees to address the issue.
One committee will address the hiring of female faculty members and the other will tackle the role of women in science and engineering.
As the task forces prepare to do their work in the fields of science and engineering, Penn Engineering administrators say there is no need for similar committees at Penn.
Summers chose 27 professors and administrators -- 22 women and 5 men -- to serve on the committees. The deadline for the report is May 1.
"It is time for Harvard to step up and affirm in strong and concrete terms its commitment to the advancement and support of women pursuing academic careers," Summers said in a statement announcing the creation of the task forces.
Penn Engineering School officials said they were optimistic about Harvard's committees but that no similar measures are necessary here.
Summers' comments about women in science were "very unwise, very ill-guided," Engineering School Dean Eduardo Glandt said. "Ironically, something good might come out of it, if indeed he has forced everybody else to confront the matter and do some introspection."
Summers drew criticism from much of the academic community after he suggested in January that biological differences between the genders might be responsible for the lack of women in math and science professions.
Summers' comments "really pissed off a lot of women," Computer and Information Science professor and Engineering School Deputy Dean Susan Davidson said.
While female faculty members at Harvard have expressed concern over the decline in tenure offers for women during Summers' presidency, Davidson said that Penn's Engineering school was working hard to hire more women. The school has increased its female faculty members from six to 12 in five years.
"I don't think that people are malicious about their hiring practices," Davidson said. "Sometimes we aren't as aware or cognizant as we should be."
Glandt said Penn did not need a committee like Harvard's at this point because the Engineering School is already making an active effort to hire more women.
"We do self-analysis all the time," he said. "Women need to be hired through the regular process ... [they need to be] wanted by the department, wanted by the school, and endorsed by everybody. Otherwise, we don't do them any favors."
Glandt added that informal programs that increase the visibility of women in engineering were more effective in the long-term than official committees like Harvard's.
"We outsource" female engineers, Glandt said. "We bring them in in other capacities, because it is important to have women in your field of vision."
Glandt said the Grace Hopper Lecture Series in the Engineering School -- which features distinguished female engineers -- helps female students find positive role models.
"Increasing the number of interactions that the faculty and students have with outstanding women ... is in itself very beneficial," said Martha Palmer, associate professor of Computer and Information Science.
Barbara Grosz, the dean of science at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, was the series' first speaker in 2001. She will also head Harvard's new committee on women in science and engineering.
Davidson added that creating a similar task force at Penn would take professors away from their academic work.
"That's the problems with all of these committees," she said. "You're the minority and you get stuck on the committee and you get stuck with all of the committee work."
