{"id":34,"date":"2026-05-21T18:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=34"},"modified":"2026-05-21T18:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:11:15","slug":"larry-summers-sexism-is-jeopardizing-his-power-and-privilege-but-the-entire-economics-profession-hinders-progress-for-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prorelocationteam.com\/?p=34","title":{"rendered":"Larry Summers\u2019 sexism is jeopardizing his power and privilege, but the entire economics profession hinders progress for\u00a0women"},"content":{"rendered":"
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House lawmakers released damning correspondence between economist Larry Summers and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Nov. 12, 2025. The exchanges, which were among more than 20,000 newly released public documents, documented how Summers \u2013 a former U.S. Treasury secretary and Harvard University president \u2013 repeatedly sought Epstein\u2019s advice while pursuing an intimate relationship with a woman he was mentoring.<\/p>\n

Read more Rural high school students are more likely than city kids to get their diplomas, but they remain less likely to go to\u00a0college<\/a><\/p>\n

The two men exchanged texts and emails until July 5, 2019, the day before Epstein was arrested on federal charges of the sex trafficking of minors. That was more than a decade after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a girl who was under 18. Epstein died by suicide that August, while in jail.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement,\u201d Summers wrote in a statement to The Crimson, Harvard\u2019s newspaper, after the documents came to light. \u201cI am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,\u201d he said in another statement.<\/p>\n

The texts have ignited a new round of scrutiny of Summers and calls for Harvard to revoke his tenure. And on Dec. 2 the American Economic Association, a professional association for economists, announced that it had banned Summers from all its activities for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

Prestigious career is unraveling<\/h2>\n

These revelations are leading to the unraveling of Summers\u2019 prestigious career.<\/p>\n

The 70-year-old economist went on leave from teaching at Harvard on Nov. 19. He has also stepped down from several boards on which he was serving, including Yale University\u2019s Budget Lab, OpenAI and two think tanks \u2013 the Center for American Progress and the Center for Global Development.<\/p>\n

In addition, Harvard has launched an investigation into whether Summers and other people affiliated with the university broke university policies through their interactions with Epstein and should be subject to disciplinary action. <\/p>\n

Many organizations had already severed their ties with Summers before the American Economic Association followed suit. Summers\u2019 withdrawal from public commitments include his role as a paid contributor to Bloomberg TV and as a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. He also withdrew from the Group of 30, an international group of financial and economics experts. <\/p>\n

Choice of a wingman was problematic<\/h2>\n

The correspondence that surfaced in late 2025 indicated that the prominent economist had engaged in more than casual banter with a convicted sex criminal. <\/p>\n

Epstein called himself Summers\u2019 \u201cwing man.\u201d Summers asked Epstein about \u201cgetting horizontal\u201d with his mentee \u2013 a female economist who had studied at Harvard. And, not for the first time, Summers questioned the intelligence of women.<\/p>\n

Summers, who is one of the nation\u2019s most influential economists, also complained about the growing intolerance among the \u201cAmerican elite\u201d of sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n

These comments call into question Summers\u2019 judgment, behavior and beliefs and the power dynamics between him and the women he has mentored.<\/p>\n

As a female economist and a board member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, I wasn\u2019t surprised by the latest revelations, shocking as they may appear.<\/p>\n

After all, it was Summers\u2019 disparaging remarks about what he said was women\u2019s relative inability to do math that led him to relinquish the Harvard presidency in 2006. And researchers have been documenting for years the gender bias that pervades the profession of economics.<\/p>\n

A leaky pipeline in higher education<\/h2>\n

Summers taught my first-year Ph.D. macroeconomics course before he became a prominent policymaker during the Clinton administration, and he advised me during his office hours. Thankfully I did not experience any sexual harassment, but as an economics doctoral candidate at Harvard in the late 1980s, I did gain firsthand insight into the elitist culture of the nation\u2019s top economics program.<\/p>\n

Back then, only about 1 in 5 of the people who earned a Ph.D. in economics in the U.S. were women. This percentage rose to 30.5% by 1995 and has barely budged since then.<\/p>\n

In 2024, according to the National Science Foundation, 34.2% of newly minted economics Ph.D.s \u2013 about 1 in 3 \u2013 in the U.S. were women, a considerably lower share than in other social sciences, business, the humanities and science. <\/p>\n