DOI: 10.1126/science.252.5014.1781 , 1781 (1991); 252Science

et al.PAUL SELVIN,Does the Harrison Case Reveal Sexism in Math?

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Does the Harrison Case

Reveal Sexism in Math?

Denied tenure at UC Berkeley, mathematician Jenny Harrisonis suing the university for alleged sex discrimination

THE UPPER ECHELONS OF ACADEMIC MATH-ematics are one of the last bastions of maleexclusivity in U.S. academics. In the top tendepartments of mathematics there are 303tenured men-and four women. Harvard,MIT, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Caltech, andChicago have no tenured female faculty.Columbia and Michigan each have one; UCBerkeley has two. The reason usually offeredin defense of such depressing statistics is thepaucity of qualified applicants. And indeed,two decades ago, when today's high-levelfaculty were being formed in graduate schoolsaround the country, the poolofwomen PhDs in math wassmall. But today, 22% ofPhDs in math go to women-and yet the totals for the Departmentyounger, untenured profes- Berkeleysors at the top ten schools Cal. Tech.are equally depressing: 86 Chicagomen, one woman. ColumbiaThe persistence ofsuch an Harvard

imbalance suggests statistics Hraisn't the only factor working MITagainst women in math- Michiganematics. And that is exactly Princetonthe claim made by 42-year- Stanfordold mathematician Jenny YaleHarrison, who is now suing _the University of Californiaat Berkeley, where in 1986 [she was denied tenure in themath department. Har-rison's suit against the Universitnia, filed in September 1989County Superior Court, allegespartmental decision to deny herthe handling of the subsequent.cess, reflects a bias against womb

Harrison's supporters (incheminent mathematicians) say sIup well against the men who rec(in Berkeley's math department inHer critics-including one of twomen in the department-thinla sore loser who doesn't meet tIofthe Berkeley department, whicsay, only "the best in the world.clash ofopinions is likely to persisOne reason, of course, is the suitthat, in a remarkable new twist, lbeen invited to reapply for ten

current chairman of the department.Whether Harrison's supporters or her de-tractors are correct, her case provides a win-dow onto the complex politics and highemotions unleashed as women enter therealm of higher mathematics.Even the staunchest defenders of Berk-

eley's math department acknowledge theproblems it has had in the past in relation towomen. Alberto Grunbaum, the depart-ment's current chairman, admits to the mathdepartment's "terrible reputation" in the pastas a Dlace for women to work (though he

Tenured Total Untenured Totalwomen tenured women untenured

_ Ad AS 12*00l**00

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TOTAL 4 303 1 86*One shares joint appointment with UCLA and is currently on long-term leave there**Tenured at Barnard College

y of Califor- argues that things have changed dramati- Harrisin Alameda cally). Berkeley's biggest embarrassment a visitingthat the de- came in 1975, when Julia Robinson was universitytenure, and elected to the National Academy ofSciences. with whaappeals pro- Robinson had worked as an occasional math result. "Sen. lecturer at Berkeley for more than 25 years- putting nuding some but was never offered a job until immediately way," sahe measures after being elected to the academy. Devaney,eived tenure It was against this background that the Har- "beautifurecent years. rison case arose a decade later. Harrison's But inwo tenured career began with a PhD thesis from the Uni- close votekHarrison is versity of Warwick in England on the ques- decidedXhe standards tion of whether jagged motion can be made departmeh hires, they smooth by looking through an appropriate professor" This sharp lens. Her answer was no, and James Yorke, a of tenuret for a while. mathematician at the University ofMaryland denied tet. Another is and director of the Institute for Physical tenured pHarrison has Sciences and Technology, calls her thesis a a closely rrure by the "major result," a term mathematicians use strongest

for a significant finding. "The same problemwas attacked by Charles Fefferman and Wil-liam Thurston-both Fields prize-wininers,"Yorke points out, "and while they were ableto come to the same overall conclusion, itwas clear that her approach was far moreelegant." This, and her later work, saysYorke, means "she should get tenure any-where in the world."

Harrison's later work involved solving oneof the main problems in dynamics and differ-ential topology, according to Charles Tresser,a mathematician at IBM, Yorktown. Knownas the C-2 Seifert conjecture, that problemaddresses something that might be (loosely)thought of as the question of whether youcan comb a hairy ball smooth with no cow-licks or parts. The problem, which had beenaround since 1950, was partially solved in1971 and solved in more complete form byHarrison in 1981 when she was spendingtime away from Berkeley as a tenured facultymember at Oxford University. This is widelyconsidered to be her second "major result."

Goose eggs. There are onlyfour tenured women in the topten math departments in theUnited States. Jenny Harrisonclaims that sexism preventedher from becoming the fifth.

;on, who recently finished a year aslecturer at Yale but now has no

y appointment, has just come upIt some are calling her third majorShe is one of the people who isnath into fractals in a spectacularys Boston University's Robertwho says her latest results are

1, just wonderful."1986, in what insiders say was a

e, the Berkeley math departmentnot to give Harrison tenure. The:nt tends to hire-even as assistantIs-only those it considers worthyand Harrison was the first to be

nure in 15 years. Morris Hirsch, a)rofessor at Berkeley who works inrelated field and is one of Harrison'ssupporters, says he thinks "people

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were misled" when Harrison's tenure casewas presented for a departmental vote.Hirsch, one of five professors on the person-nel committee responsible for presenting hercase, thinks the committee, which summa-rizes and interprets a candidate's record,could have offered a stronger case. "Thesame case could have been presented to thedepartment and looked very strong... If shewere a man, it would have been a moreroutine case." C

The picture presented to the an,

department, according to several CD t t

professors present at the meeting, 0

was that of a candidate whoIhadn't published much, had let-ters of recommendations thatwere a mixed bag, and whose bestwork had had little impact in themath community. Harrison andher supporters argue that thosecriticisms are unfair. "I had atleast as many papers as three mentenured during the time I was atBerkeley," Harrison says, "and Genderthe number of my major results a rawcompared favorably with sev- thinks heral-about half-of the eight [men whowere promoted to tenure]."An examination of publication lists sup-

ports Harrison's claim that she had as manypublished papers as several of the men whogot tenure while she was at Berkeley. AndJerry Marsden, winner of the prestigiousNorbert Wiener prize in 1990 and a mem-ber of the department who works inHarrison's field, arrives at the same judg-ment as Harrison about her major results.He knows the work of five of the men whoreceived tenure well, he says, and Harrisonis "somewhere in the middle" of that groupin terms of her major results. At the time ofthe tenure decision, he says, she had onemajor result beyond her thesis, as did threeof the men; one man was given tenurewithout any major results.

Harrison and her supporters also criticizethe letter sent out by the department's vicechairman at the time, Marc Rieffel, solicitingopinions from math colleagues of her work.That letter, they say, was sent to an unusuallylarge number ofpeople, including mathema-ticians who were famous but not familiar withHarrison's work. "Of course they sent backpolite letters which said little of her work,"says Hirsch. "People who knew her work thebest wrote the best letters."

Furthermore, Harrison backers say thatthe letter requesting comments containedlanguage that seemed to invite negative re-plies. Hirsch calls Rieffel's missive "com-pletely improper," adding that it "put wordsin people's mouths." (Hirsch says he didn'tread the letter until after Harrison was denied

tenure, and so didn't object at the time).Morton Brown, a mathematician at the

University of Michigan who was one of therecipients-but who has no obvious stake inthe Berkeley math department's tussle-told Science: "There were questions in theletter that one doesn't normally see." Oneexample: "Do you think it likely that duringthe next decades her research will progressat the expected rate?" Brown says he

calculus. Morris Hirsch (left) thinks Jenny Harr'eal because she is a woman. Steve Smale isn't soier gender inflamed opinions on both sides.

thought that was a "peculiar question,"adding that earlier, the letter asks for a"frank evaluation." Says Brown: "It's notclear if that's a code word or not, but it's aslightly surprising word."

Rieffel, author of the criticized letter, saysthe critics are "snatching at straws." He adds:"I don't see anything that's unusual or wrongwith asking about a person's productivity inthe future." The number of letters was "onthe high side," he says, because Harrisonsupplied a list of eight possible referees andvarious members ofthe department asked forothers. "The idea that this was some kind ofsearch for letters that would 'do her in' iscrazy," says Rieffel. Famous mathematicianswho "weren't intimately familiar" with herwork could put it in context by taking a"broader view," he argues.

Harrison and her proponents also contendthat her accomplishments were minimized ata crucial juncture in the meeting where hertenure case was decided. A senior member ofthe department, they say, brought up some-thing Hirsch says had never been consideredin tenure decisions for men-the ScienceCitation Index. That faculty member saidthat there were only three references to herthesis in the index. "It sounds quite nega-tive," says Hirsch, "until you stop to think:'How does it compare to other people whoare being promoted?"' According to an analy-sis by Nancy Stern of Hofstra Universitypublished in Social Studies of Science, theaverage paper written by a mathematician inthe National Academy is cited just 2.5 times.Harrison says there are 11 citations in the

literature to her thesis although not all ofthem appeared in the issue of the CitationIndex referred to at the meeting.Whether this adds up to a case ofdiscrimi-

nation is a question that produces sharplydivided opinions. Perhaps the most resound-ing no came from the university's powerfulPrivilege and Tenure Committee. Harrisonappealed her department's verdict and inSeptember 1989, after 80 hours oftestimony

from 25 witnesses, the 5-memberJC committee (which included two

-S m women) unanimously concludedthat "there is no demonstrableevidence to the charge that gen-der discrimination existed in thedepartment or that it influencedthe mathematics' faculty assess-ment of Dr. Harrison's case."According to psychology pro-

fessor Sheldon Zedeck, whochaired the committee, use ofthe Citation Index is not againstprocedural rules, and the con-

risongot troversial solicitation letter wassure; he not shown to have a negative

impact. Harrison, says Zedeck,"was not able to demonstrate that there wasbias in the department that influenced thebehavior of the faculty members."Grunbaum, the department's current

chairman-and the man who invited Har-rison to reapply for a tenured position-alsodenies that her rejection was due to sexism."I would be the first to make a stink if Jennyhad been treated unfairly," says Grunbaum.Marina Ratner, one of the two tenuredwomen at Berkeley, calls Harrison's cam-paign a "disgrace" and says it hurts Ratner'sreputation and the reputation of other de-serving women. "I agree that there is a lot ofsexism at this university and in math ingeneral, but not in Harrison's case," Ratnersaid. She thinks many of her colleagues areafraid to criticize Harrison for fear of"beingaccused of sexism."As for the glowing words others offer

about Harrison, Rieffel argues that "there isa tendency for people to have a higheropinion of younger people working in theirown [subdiscipline] as opposed to youngerpeople working in other [subdisciplines]."Rieffel also believes mathematicians distantfrom Berkeley don't realize how much thedepartment's standards have risen in the lastthree decades. They would be "likely to saythat someone meets 'Berkeley standards'when in fact this may not be the case, sinceit is the older standards they may be apply-ing," says Rieffel.

But others-including two assistants to theuniversity chancellor charged with monitor-ing discrimination in tenure cases-think Har-rison was treated unfairly. English professor

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Frances Ferguson recommended that an ex-

pert in Harrison's field from another cam-

pus be appointed to the review process-

but that step was never taken. Forestry pro-

fessor Sally Fairfax, who replaced Fergusonin 1986 as part ofthe normal rotation in theposition of chancellor's assistant, cited sex

discrimination and recommended that thechancellor overturn the departmental deci-sion and grant Harrison tenure-but thattoo came to naught.

Inevitably, word of the decision spreadinto the international math community.Harrison's colleagues "ganged up on herand cheated on her," says ChristopherZeeman, one of the most influential math-ematicians in England. Zeeman, who thinksHarrison is "clearly of Berkeley quality,"says he has taken a particular interest in hercase because he advised Harrison in theearly part of her graduate work at Warwick."The unfairness of the assessment of JennyHarrison at Berkeley is well known in theinternational community," Zeeman claims.

Somewhere between the extreme positionsis Stephen Smale, a mathematician at Berke-ley and a winner of the Fields prize (math'sequivalent of the Nobel prize). Smale thinksHarrison was a "borderline" candidate fortenure. Although he says her case was "notvery strong," he thinks she was better than at

least one man who was tenured and that herrelative merits with others were "arguable."Smale adds that he isn't sure whether im-proper procedures occurred in the tenure

decision, but "the fact that she is a woman

brings out all sorts of emotions andpartisanships. Weaknesses get magnified-that's where sexism plays a role. Other peoplesupport her because she is a woman."

Sorting out this tangle ofopinion and factcould soon be the job of a jury. In themeantime, Harrison, who is $50,000 indebt from legal fees, faces the choice givenher by Grunbaum: Reapply to the Berkeleymath department for a tenured position(Grunbaum says her third "major result"may change the minds ofsome faculty about

whether Harrison deserves tenure) or spurn

the offer and play hardball in the courts. Shesays other schools have expressed an interestin hiring her, but she's not ready for thatoption: "If I felt I was the only one harmed,I might consider leaving, but I saw a pattern

involving other women. I feel morallyobliged to do something. I'm not walkingaway from this thing until it's settled."

Eventually Harrison's case will be settled.By itself, of course, it won't resolve theproblems faced by women in academicmathematics. But the lessons of the case

will be instructive for more than one de-partment of mathematics. And if Harrisondoes accept Grunbaum's offer and winstenure the second time around, herstruggle will have raised the total numberof women tenured in the top ten math-ematics departments by 25 percent: fromfour to five. M PAUL SELVIN

Paul Selvin is a postdoc in biophysics atLawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Funding Cutoff Threatens Thai ScienceHong Kong-On 23 February, when the attention of the worldwas firmly fixed on the Persian Gulf, a bloodless coup d'etat inThailand brought down the government of Prime MinisterChatichai Choonhavan. The little-noticed coup, carried out bycommander ofthe armed forces General Sundhara Kongsompongostensibly to stamp out government corruption, drew an imme-diate condemnation from the United States, followed by suspen-

sion ofeconomic aid to its longtime Asian ally. The cutoff-whichis mandated by U.S. law when a democratically elected govern-

ment is overthrown-has wreaked havoc with bilateral scientificprograms worth some $3 million in funds from the U.S. Agencyfor International Development (USAID) this year, to the dismayof both U.S. and Thai scientists.

Typical of the damage caused by the suspension of aid is thedisruption suffered by a 5-year joint venture involving the Univer-sity of Rhode Island (URI) and the Prince of Songkla University(PSU) in Hat Yai, in southern Thailand. The aim of the projectwas to establish a Coastal Resources Institute, known as CORIN,that would offer a master's degree program to train a cadre ofcoastal zone managers, initially for Thailand and eventually for allof Southeast Asia.

"After 3 years of hard work in setting up what has widely beenviewed as a model for a university-based center of excellence incoastal resources management, the United States will lose itsinitiative and influence," complains a frustrated Stephen Olsen,the director of URI's Coastal Resources Management Project.Industrial development, tourism, and aquaculture are booming inThailand, notes Olsen, and expertise in coastal resources manage-

ment is desperately needed. Already, he says, unplanned industrialgrowth has spoiled some coastal resorts, such as Pattaya.The cutoff has tested the traditional patience ofthe Thais. The

U.S.-educated president of the Prince of Songkla University,Phasook Kullavanij, is bitter: "The aid programs are importantbecause they encourage the Thai government to support more

research in our country," he says. "Due to the suspension of U.S.aid, many of PSU's R&D programs have had to be stopped or

scaled down drastically." The result is that after months of plan-ning and convincing Thai scientists to join the CORIN project,there is no money to pay salaries. Says CORIN director SomsakBoromthanarat, "CORIN staff have lost their morale and are

looking for other jobs."The cutoff has also cost the URI group, which runs programs

in several countries, 15% of its total budget and threatened thejobs of at least nine U.S. scientists working on the CORINproject. Moreover, URI officials have had the sad duty ofinforming five Thai PhD students who had just been admitted to

U.S. universities following a grueling application process thatthey could not come unless they can find their own money.

Other Thai students have been cut loose by other U.S-fundedprograms. In all, USAID estimates that 30 Thai students are ina similar bind. As a result, top-notch Thai students are now

looking to Dutch, Australian, and Canadian scholarship pro-

grams for assistance.Some Thai scientists are now saying that dealing with USAID

is too much trouble. They point out that the United States is theonly nation that suspended economic aid following the coup-indeed, Japan announced that it would continue its close rela-tions with Thailand, providing $614 million in economic aid in1991. But the U.S. government's hands are tied: According toU.S. law, aid cannot be restored until there is a new election inThailand. Thus, despite the lifting of martial law on 2 May, thelack of any overt civil discontent, and a pledge by the rulingmilitary council to hold elections early next year, Washington hasdirected the USAID office in Bangkok to close down by 23October. * GREGOR HODGSON

Gregor Hodgson is a biologist and free-lance writer based inHong Kong.

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