How the Summers-Epstein scandal further proves that gender bias exists in economics

While Summers’ behavior and the reported dynamics between him and a woman he mentored may appear shocking, they are all too common in economics.

[Images: Getty Images, Adobe Stock]

Economist Larry Summers will resign from his tenured job as a professor at Harvard University, the school announced on Feb. 25, 2026, following heightened scrutiny of his ties with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Summers will leave at the end of the 2025-26 academic year, with a new title: president emeritus.

It’s a soft landing for his fall from grace.

In November 2025, Harvard launched an investigation of Summers, a former U.S. Treasury secretary who previously served as Harvard’s president.

The probe looked into whether Summers and other members of Harvard’s faculty and administration had interactions with Epstein that violated its guidelines on accepting gifts and should be subject to disciplinary action. Summers’ resignation is connected with this ongoing investigation, a Harvard spokesperson told The Hill.

Despite repeated calls by students for Harvard to revoke Summers’ tenure, he held onto his teaching and academic appointments at Harvard until he chose to retire. Students and staff also called for his resignation in 2005 following his disparaging comments about women in science.

“Free of formal responsibility, as President Emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis, and commentary on a range of global economic issues,” Summers said in a statement released on Feb. 25.

As a female economist and a board member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession—a standing committee of the American Economic Association—I wasn’t surprised by the revelations of Summers’ apparent chumminess with Epstein, shocking as they may appear.

Claire's went from tween mall icon to bankrupt — twice?

© Fast Company