Women in Philosophy

Women just cant think rationally, women cant come up with anything original, debating with a women is like a ticking time bomb, women are stupid and dangerous, women are too vulnerable, women have more important things to worry about, women just don’t find philosophy interesting, women are just not in the same league…

These are only a few comments that derived from the frequently asked question of why are there so few women in philosophy?

Another problem is why are there so few women in fields like math’s, science and physics?

Stats for women in mathematics, science and engineering: 

computer science/engineering: below 30% 
physical sciences and mathematics: below 40% 
social and biosciences: at or above 50% 
psychology: above 70% 

philosophy?..around 30%, closer to 20% if we mean employed in philosophy. 


Sheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook: 
Ms. Sandberg, speaking at Barnard College in May 2011 , told graduates, “We have to admit something that’s sad but true: Men run the world.” She cites figures to drive home her point. “Of 190 heads of state, nine are women. Of all the parliaments around the world, women hold 13 percent of those seats. Corporate America top jobs, 15 percent are women, numbers which have not moved at all in the past nine years.”

The common perception that philosophy is one of the least balanced of the humanities subjects in terms of gender. It leaves open the question of whether its reputation as a “white men’s club” is deserved, since reliable data on the ethnic profile of departments proved surprisingly elusive

Can you name at least 10 women philosophers? Most people cant, naming 10 male philosophers is easy for anyone to do; we see quotes and hear of great philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Hobbes, Rawls and Mills all the time, but where are the women?

I have recently started this discussion on various Philosophy groups to try and find some answers to this problem, unaware of how popular this topic is worldwide, it increasingly became obvious that there is a great absence in women philosophers and how many people are oblivious of this fact is frightening.  I am not only talking about women philosophers but also women studying philosophy and also teaching philosophy.

There is evidence women perceive and construed social realities differently from men, women’s sense of integrity appears to be intertwined with an ethics of care, they see themselves in a relationship of connection, from pleasing others to helping and nurturing others, a progression of understanding, not of mutual care but of respect as we see in Kolhberg’s stages of progression.

Traces of the old patriarchal poison still remains even in the contemporary theorems, few may actually admit tingly say that a women’s place is at home, but there is muttering and hinting especially when unemployment figures rise and attention averted on the flood of women in the workplace that complicates the problem as it is seen that it would be better if women just went back home and leave the jobs for the men. According to our liberal morality and pretense of equality women have not been able to pursue their pursuit to happiness.

As Gilligan said, what we need is a marriage of the old male and the newly articulated female insights. If she is right about the special moral aptitudes of women, it will most likely be the women who propose the marriage, since they are the ones with more natural empathy, with the better diplomatic skills, the ones more likely to shoulder responsibility and take moral initiative, and the ones who find it easiest to emphasize and care about how the other party feels. Then, once there is this union of male and female moral wisdom, we maybe can teach each other the moral skills each gender currently lacks, so that the gender difference in moral outlook that Gilligan found will slowly become less marked.

‘The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities,’ said Aristotle; ‘we

should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness.’

Simone De Beauvoir –The Second sex, wrote

“A little-known feminist of the seventeenth century,

Poulain de la Barre, put it this way: ‘all that has been written about women by

men should be suspect, for the men are at once judge and party to the lawsuit.’

Everywhere, at all times, the males have displayed their satisfaction in feeling

that they are the lords of creation. ‘Blessed be God ... that He did not make me a

woman,’ say the Jews in their morning prayers, while their wives pray on a note

of resignation: ‘Blessed be the Lord, who created me according to His will.’ The

first among the blessings for which Plato thanked the gods was that he had been

created free, not enslaved; the second, a man, not a woman. But the males could

not enjoy this privilege fully unless they believed it to be founded on the absolute

and the eternal; they sought to make the fact of their supremacy into a right.”

Have women just given up the fight or is it true that women are just not interested in these fields? If asked to choose between careers where you do have a chance to make all your dreams come true and becoming a housewife and raise children, what would you choose? Sometimes, but not often some are fortunate enough to do both, like Sheryl Sandberg the COO of Facebook, making her millions and juggling her time between work and quality time with her family is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it can work.

 What it’s like being a woman in philosophy1 - an address to the Deakin Philosophical Society

Petra Brown, PhD candidate, Deakin University 2011

“Let me be crystal clear about what it is like to be a woman in philosophy. It is to be aware of yourself as a woman all the time, much as a woman is aware of herself as a woman amongst footballers or army recruits. It is to feel vulnerable, to be slightly on guard all the time and that feeling of guarding your vulnerability transfers to what you read, to what you think, to who you talk to and, ultimately, to what you write. Vulnerability is an interesting word here because the ‘top dog’ style of thinking is about consolidating power in order to make one invulnerable from attack.”

Sally Haslanger, based in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes philosophy departments as hyper-masculine places that are competitive, combative, oriented towards individual accomplishment, individual intelligence and hostile to femininity. Women are alienated by the atmosphere where ordinary social norms are not recognized. As a result, ‘it is difficult for women to feel “at home” in a hyper-masculine environment since it requires sublimating potentially important aspects of identity

BPA Report-Women in Philosophy in the UK

“Philosophy in the UK has a long and very distinguished history. That history is dominated by male philosophers: from Duns Scotus and William of Ockham, through Locke, Hume and Reid, to Bradley, Russell and Wittgenstein. This is, of course, a feature not only of philosophy but of every other aca­demic discipline. However, philosophy continues to be dominated by men in a way that many other disciplines—particularly in the arts and humanities—are not. For example, according to HESA data, only 35% of philosophy PhD students in the UK are female, compared to 61% in English and 53% in history. If you visit the website of almost any UK department of English, history or psychology, you are overwhelmingly likely to find a considerably higher proportion of female members of staff than in the philosophy department. The proportion of permanent post-holders in UK philosophy depart­ments who are women stands at roughly 24%, despite the fact that roughly 46% of single and joint Honours undergraduates are women.

Things look different, of course, if we compare philosophy not with English, history and psychology, but with mathematics, physics and computer science. For example, the proportion of PhD students in mathematics the UK who are women is 28%. One important difference between the sciences on the one hand and philosophy on the other, however, is that the lack of women at all levels in the sciences has long been regarded, nationally, as a serious problem, and various organizations and initiatives exist to try to combat it.”

Sally Haslanger

Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Massachusetts Institute of Technology

“There is a deep well of rage inside of me. Rage about how I as an individual have been treated in philosophy; rage about how others I know have been treated; and rage about the conditions that I’m sure affect many women and minorities in philosophy, and have caused many others to leave. Most of the time I suppress this rage and keep it sealed away. Until I came to MIT in 1998, I was in a constant dialogue with myself about whether to quit philosophy, even give up tenure, to do something else. In spite of my deep love for philosophy, it just didn’t seem worth it. And I am one of the very lucky ones. One of the ones who has been successful by the dominant standards of the profession. Whatever the numbers say about women and minorities in philosophy, numbers don’t begin to tell the story. Things may be getting

better in some contexts, but they are far from acceptable.”

I often get asked as I sure the men do too, is why I study philosophy and what can you do with it? I could write a book about the benefits and the importance of philosophy and why its still needed in society today and will be 10 years from now. There is a huge gap in our educational system when it comes to critical thinking and creativity, when asked to think for one –self instead of giving a textbook answers the problem will manifest in itself. Many companies are looking for logic, rational, analytical thinkers that can debate and discuss mainstream arguments, there are also jobs as professors, teachers and lecturers available, but the problem is that being a female embarking on a career in philosophy is very challenging and often disheartening.

I have had many debates with men where I was the only female present and it was frightening but also very liberating, often the outcome of the debates are; we agreed to disagree or sexist jokes were brought up to lighten the mood.

It is clear what the problem is but not so clear how to move forward from here, from early childhood girls are introduced to a prince charming, a Cinderella fairytales and a life of make belief and imagination. Barbie dolls and Bratz dolls that are spoiled by choice of luxury living and having the ideal life, staying at home and raising children while the man is hard at work. Who would say no to a life like that? Can we trust the television and media to bring forth a message that women are stronger than they think if and when they challenge themselves to think rather then sitting back enjoying the luxuries of the rich of famous, the glamorous lifestyles of those on television whom we so too often come to see and unfortunately many women choose to idolize? Have we become so comfortable with the notion that women should be at home taking care of children rather than following their passions and dreams of being more?

I do agree that men and women think differently but both have equal right to raise their opinions and to be heard, we all can learn from each other, putting prejudice and sexist connotations aside, we all share the same passions and have this unremitting thirst for more knowledge and understanding.

Nor can we always put all the blame on men, as women can be just as mean towards other women when feeling threatened or being the object of much debated critique, we often see this of women in power positions.

Currently still a student; doing a B.A in Philosophy is scary but so worth it. It has been an eye-opener and an amazing journey so far, diving deep into the unknown searching for answers and realizing one’s potential. Learning and listening how people debate issues on poverty, time, reality, morality, politics, religion, ethics, life and our purpose is inspirational and also very motivational.  

I challenge women to step up to the plate, make your voices heard, dare to dream and do the impossible. Don’t hide in the shadows, you weren’t born to blend in but born to stand out. If your dream is to become a physicist, a philosopher, a mathematician, a writer, a politician…then do it!