Some days it falls in your lap

It's not as easy as it looks to spray everything with a mix of sarcasm and derision. Some days you have to stretch it ('umm, you're pants are so... stupid) but then there are other days when it's so easy you wonder why you even have to try.

This is one of these days.

You may recall that a while ago the president of Harvard resigned because he had the audacity to suggest that there are differences between men and women, and these differences may account for differing abilities in certain areas, and that perhaps we should look into it. Oh my, a president of a university challenging accepted dogma and asking for a skeptical investigation into a supposed truth? Dear Lord, please save us. He also attacked a prominent African-American professor over grade-inflating and grandstanding and tried to manage the Arts and Science Faculty.

(All of this reminds me of Philip Roth's The Human Stain and excellent book. If you haven't read it yet, hang your head in shame, take a week off work, lock the door, take the phone off the hook and don't emerge until you've read it)

The new president of Harvard is a woman, which should surprise no one. She tried to play down her 'gender' by saying: “I am not the woman president of Harvard, I’m the president of Harvard.” True enough, and I am in no way doubting her qualifications, having no idea what they are or really what a university president does, except sit in on endless meetings.

This is the good part though (and where you should sit up and pay attention): Ms Faust said that leadership experts contend that the female management style, thought to be more collegial and involve more consensus-building, is particularly suited to running an educational institution. Her predecessor, Lawrence Summers, the former US Treasury secretary, resigned as Harvard president amid tensions with faculty over his sometimes blunt style and accusations that he had made comments questioning whether there are innate differences in intelligence between men and women.

Yes. Well. Right.

So, to sum up, her gender doesn't matter that she got this job, but her gender does matter because women have a kinder, gentler management style than men, which would mean that there are differences between men and women, and saying that is why her predecessor had to resign.

Pencils down on your desk, please and pass your papers to the front.