Tim Hunt the victim of self-righteous feeding frenzy, says Richard Dawkins

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12. Hunt Thanks Female Scientists for Their Support

The beleaguered UK scientist Sir Tim Hunt on Saturday thanked the hundreds of female scientists who have written to support him in the wake of the furore triggered by his controversial remarks about women in science...

“My inbox is now bulging with touching emails from young women scientists who have been kind enough to write and thank me for inspiring them and helping them on their way,” Hunt told the Observer yesterday. “It has also been of great comfort to me to see many women at the top of science testifying for my record in supporting women scientists.”

Top female scientists who have expressed support include physicist Dame Athene Donald, biologist Professor Ottoline Leyser and physiologist Dame Nancy Rothwell. All decried his jocular remarks, but described in warm terms his past support for young scientists of both sexes...

However, he did acknowledge that his “idiotic joke” had touched a nerve. “My comments have brought to the surface the anger and frustration of a great many women in science whose careers have been blighted by chauvinism and discrimination,” he said. “If any good is to come from this miserable affair, it should be that the scientific community starts to acknowledge this anger, recognise the problem and move a lot faster to remove the remaining barriers.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/20/sir-tim-hunt-gratitude-female-scientists-support-joke