Harvard President's remarks on Women and science. In the light of Harvard President Lawrence Summers disparaging remarks on women in science it is instructive for comparison to reflect on the remarks of two great mathematicians and their views of women in mathematics. Gauss’s remaks when he discovered that his correspondent “Monsieur Leblanc” was actually a woman, Sophie Germain: "But how to describe to you my admiration and astonishment at seeing my esteemed correspondent Monsieur LeBlanc metamorphose himself into this illustrious personage who gives such a brilliant example of what I would find it difficult to believe. The enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it. But when a woman, who because of her sex and our prejudices encounters infinitely more obstacles that an man in familiarizing herself with complicated problems, succeeds nevertheless in surmounting these obstacles and penetrating the most obscure parts of them, without doubt she must have the noblest courage, quite extraordinary talents and superior genius." Carl Friedrich Gauss - see here for more details on Sophie Germain On the frustration faced by David Hilbert in trying to get an appointment for Emmy Noether at the University of Gottingen. ``I do not see that the sex of the candidate is an argument against her admission as Privatdozent (lecturer). After all, we are a university, not a bathing establishment.'' see here