No Girls Allowed. Well, OK, maybe a few. . . .

Between Harvard president Lawrence Summers’ comments that women might be underrepresented in the sciences as a result of innate sex differences (with nary a word about sexism in the professions) and the 80% male composition of UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee, one wonders: if women really are different from men, don’t they need to be represented? In a press release issued today, the Women’s Bioethics Project highlights the under-representation of women on UNESCO’s International Bioethics Committee, which is currently meeting in Paris to adopt the draft Declaration on Universal Bioethical Norms. Edmund Pellegrino is the expert from the U.S. WBP founder Kathryn Hinsch calls the idea that a group that is 80% male should be thought capable of developing universal norms “absurd,” noting that women are affected differently by many bioethical issues. . . and that these issues tend to receive political attention and funding only when women make themselves heard. Or maybe it’s that they are innately shy and retiring? The Women’s Bioethics Project is a nonpartisan public-policy institute in Seattle that focuses on neuroethics, women’s health, and reproductive technologies. Also, they have a spiffy new web design. -- Linda Glenn