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Recent remarks by Harvard president Lawrence Summers that innate differences between genders might partially explain why fewer women than men pursue science and engineering careers generated a storm of protest.

While we want to encourage each individual woman (and man) to pursue scientific careers, aggregate differences do exist and it important to understand their reasons.

The current KDnuggets poll is asking whether

Lower % of women in science and tech is due in part to genetic differences

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See also a recent article that suggests that something in the brains of boys may predispose them to perform better on certain standardized tests of mathematical abilities. Hormones in women -- and in men -- apparently alter how well they can do particular cognitive tasks.

Some academics just don't want to hear such conclusions, says Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard who wrote about innate traits in The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Penguin Putnam, 2002). "Human nature in the eyes of many academics is morally tainted," he says, "and that gets in the way of figuring out what makes us tick."

At the same time, however, researchers who study gender differences say Mr. Summers's emphasis on innate aptitude simply doesn't add up. Whatever biological factors do exist, they pale next to the pervasive social forces that push young women away from advanced math courses, and later, from careers in mathematics and in related disciplines like physics and engineering. Women make up only 26 percent of the work force with doctorates in science or engineering. Among tenured faculty members in mathematics, fewer than 10 percent are female.