A former Harvard lecturer and evolutionary biologist who bucked gender ideology claims the Ivy League school failed to support her as her career was imploding.
Carole Hooven, who previously taught the “Hormones and Behavior” human evolutionary biology course at Harvard, first ignited controversy back in 2021 when she declared that there are only two biological sexes.
“This was 2021 and I didn’t know everything I know now. I had expected that they would [support me], but nobody knew what to do,” Hooven told The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan earlier this month.
In July 2021, Hooven defended biological sex during an appearance on Fox News.
“The ideology seems to be that biology really isn’t as important as how somebody feels about themselves or feels their sex to be,” Hooven told Fox News at the time.
“The facts are that there are, in fact, two sexes — there are male and female — and those sexes are designated by the kind of gametes we produce,” added Hooven, who has also authored a book about testosterone.
The interview sparked a backlash from one of her Harvard graduate student colleagues.
Laura Simone Lewis, the director of the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force at Harvard’s Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, criticized Hooven on social media shortly after the interview.
Lewis said she was “appalled and frustrated by the transphobic and harmful remarks” made by a member of her department.
“I respect Carole as a colleague & scientist. But this dangerous language perpetuates a system of discrimination against non-cis people within the med system,” Lewis posted on X at the time.
What followed was postgraduates calling Hooven a “bigot” and refusing to be her teaching assistant, she claimed.
Eventually, Hooven decided to leave her role at Harvard.
“I gave everything to that place,” she said of the university during her interview on The Dishcast this month.
“This happened because DEI is so powerful in the university,” Hooven said. “None of them were willing to do anything.”
“It was very influential, and I know for a fact that faculty were nervous about p—–g off the people on the DEI task force,” she said.
On Monday, Hooven urged her supporters not to harass Lewis, saying no individual is “solely responsible” for her departure from Harvard.
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“The graduate student who tweeted about my views on language & sex did what was encouraged by the campus culture. While she is a key part of the story, she is not to blame. Please let her be,” Hooven posted on X.
No individual is solely responsible for the circumstances that led to my departure from @harvard. The graduate student who tweeted about my views on language & sex did what was encouraged by the campus culture. While she is a key part of the story, she is not to blame. Please let…
— Carole Hooven (@hoovlet) January 15, 2024
Hooven’s remarks come as Harvard has been embroiled in several controversies over the last few months.
Harvard’s former president, Claudine Gay, resigned from her post earlier this month after multiple allegations of plagiarism in her academic work.
Before that, the Ivy League university was already embroiled in controversy over its handling of antisemitism on campus and Gay’s response to those concerns, which was criticized as weak.