Saturday, December 7, 2019

A Tribute to George Mackey

I believe that people should be judged by what they do, rather than by what they say.

When I tell people who knew George Mackey that I felt that he was the Harvard math professor who was the most supportive of women, they think I'm being sarcastic.

Mackey espoused off-the-wall beliefs about women being, on average, genetically less suited than men to do mathematics. His abstract ideas about gender differences were definitely not "politically correct". But he was very helpful to women on an individual level.

Mackey showed interest in my mathematical career, and respect for me and my opinions. When I visited Harvard, I enjoyed stopping by Mackey's office. He and I would spar about issues on which we disagreed. I always found him fun to talk to and argue with. I considered his abstract (non-mathematical) theories to be amusing, and I didn't take them seriously.

(I eventually heard about a female student who did take Mackey's theories on gender differences seriously, and was discouraged enough by them to decide not to go into mathematics. So I will qualify my praise by saying that Mackey's influence wasn't always positive. I'm saying he was one of the best. I'm not saying he was great, or even good on balance.)

In my experience, the mathematicians who do the most harm to women are often the ones who publicly espouse the most "politically correct" views, but privately undermine people on an individual level. They're often viewed highly by people with insufficient information. I encourage you to pay attention to whether people are really doing the right thing, or just saying what they think reflects well on them. Be wary of the silver-tongued bullshit artist!

Afterword, added April 2, 2025:

Recent events reminded me of conversations with George Mackey, in which he told me that it was a mistake for universities to accept funding from the government. He believed that universities would eventually become dependent on such funding, and it would lead to the government having too much of a say in what research got done. Faculty should decide what research to pursue, and universities should support the research. When I recently asked some of Mackey's colleagues if George had told this to them, they said he had, and they pointed out that Mackey never took federal funding, as a matter of principle. Mackey's view that it would come back to bite us in the long run seems to have been vindicated.