Mayor Johnson backs ‘chauvinist’ scientist
BORIS Johnson has called for the Nobel laureate who resigned after making controversial comments about women to be reinstated.
The mayor of London said Sir Tim Hunt did not deserve to be “pilloried” for speaking about the “trouble with girls” at a conference in South Korea last week.
Sir Tim resigned from the Royal Society and University College London after his remarks sparked a backlash on the internet.
The scientist said he was “hung out to dry” over comments he insisted were meant to be humorous and for which he apologised.
Mr Johnson said the comments were made during a “light-hearted” and “off -the-cuff” speech.
Mr Johnson said: “Sir Tim Hunt was doing what he had done all his life – pointing out a natural phenomenon he had observed. He did not deserve to be pilloried, and should be reinstated forthwith to his academic positions.”
Sir Tim repor tedly described himself as a “chauvinist pig” at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Seoul and argued for single-sex laboratories.
He said: “Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticise them they cry.”
Mr Johnson said it is a scientific fact women cry more readily than men, citing work of Professor Ad Vingerhoets, of Tilburg University, and maintained it should not be an offence to point out a “gender difference”.