Manhattan Institute

Identity Politics in the Sciences

Heather Mac Donald joins Brian Anderson to discuss how universities and the scientific community are being pressured to alter the gender and racial balance in STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering, and math—and the implications for the American future.

For decades, multiculturalism, quotas, and identity politics have been pervasive in humanities departments at most major universities—but not in scientific fields. Now that’s changing, as the identity-politics obsession has penetrated STEM programs, and administrators, professors, and other officials attempt to increase the number of women and minorities in the field, by almost any means necessary. As Mac Donald writes, this pressure is “changing how science is taught and how scientific qualifications are evaluated. The results will be disastrous for scientific innovation and for American competitiveness.”

Read Heather Mac Donald’s essay, “How Identity Politics Is Harming the Sciences,” in the Spring 2018 Issue of City Journal.

More from Manhattan Institute

Manhattan Institute4 min read
Hard-Nosed Economist, Generous Soul
Walter E. Williams died on Tuesday night after teaching his cherished class in price theory to first-year graduate students. Walter was an old school economic thinker, and he pursued the logic of economic reasoning consistently and persistently. Gene
Manhattan Institute3 min readPolitics
Lies and Violence
A mass gathering of Trump supporters took place in Washington recently. As seems almost commonplace at such events these days, counter-protestors showed up, and people were physically hurt. Whatever your politics, Democrat or Republican, MAGA or Neve
Manhattan Institute6 min readPolitics
The Happiest Warrior
Bruce Herschensohn would hate what I’m about to do. He always lamented that Years of Lightning, Day of Drums—the acclaimed documentary he produced about the life and assassination of President John F. Kennedy—tended to get re-aired on the anniversary

Related