Women in Philosophy.
Two quotes from
Plato.
We went in then and
found Socrates just released from his fetters and Xanthippe—you know her—with
his little son in her arms, sitting beside him. Now when Xanthippe saw us, she
cried out and said the kind of thing that women always do say: “Oh Socrates,
this is the last time now that your friends will speak to you or you to them.”
And Socrates glanced at Crito and said, “Crito, let somebody take her home.”And
some of Crito's people took her away wailing and beating her breast”
(Phaedo 60a).
“if women are expected to do the same work as
men, we must teach them the same things.” (Republic 452a)
Some Sobering Statistics
·
1) 21% of employed philosophers are women (Kathryn Norlock)
·
2) 18.5% of philosophy faculty at top 54 programs (Leiter Report) are
women (Julie van Camp)
·
3) 2004 US Department of Education estimates 41% of those employed in
the humanities are women.
·
4) National Digest of Educational Statistics (NCES) reports 39% female
at postsecondary degree granting institutions.
·
5) Philosophy PhDs awarded: 27% (and stuck there for the last ten years
or so, with a spike to 33.3% in 2004, 25.1% in 2005).
·
6) Survey of Degrees Awarded (SED) 2005 figures. History 41%, Astronomy
and physics 26%, Economics: 30%, Political Science 39%.
http://www.uh.edu/~cfreelan/SWIP/stats.html
However, things are actually worse than that. According to Kate Norlock’s report to the APA,
among full-time instructional faculty, women are 16.6% of the 13,000 total
full-time philosophy faculty (that is, 2,158),and 26% of the 10,
000
part-time instructors (that is, 2,600). In other words, women are 4,758 of the
23,000 or so: 20.69%.
Lists a ranking of the top fifty graduate programs.
University of Georgia has 50% females.
Baylor is tied for second to last
with 1 in 14
(7.1%) though in the report it is
listed as 0 in 13. None of the full professors in the
department are female (at least not yet). None of the distinguished or university
professors in the department are female. Ta Baylor’s
Philosophy graduate student population is
slightly better. The website lists 31
current students 6 are
female. (19.5 %) though recently one female left the program.
Nation
wide 29 % of undergraduate philosophy degrees are earned
by females. I didn’t have Baylor’s own
undergrad statistics.
Questions
for Discussion:
How
does this situation strike you?
What
might be the reasons for the disparity in male and female enrollment in
philosophy courses, in graduate study, in securing employment and
promotion?
Does
the lack of women in philosophy influence how philosophy is taught?
Is
philosophy itself sexist?
Is
academic philosophy?
What
can we do about it?
Should
we do anything about it?
In what
way does turning to Sappho
help us sort out this problem and
possible causes and possible
solutions to it?
