ilosophy ph in thoughts/women

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Women in philosophy JENNIFER SAUL ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BIASES ADVERSELY AFFECTING PHILOSOPHY – AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT

In the UK, women are 46 per cent of undergraduate students in philosophy, but only 24 per cent of permanent staff. Women are approximately 21 per cent of professional philosophers in the US, but only 17 per cent of those employed full time. These figures are very unlike those for most fields of the humanities, in which women tend to be near or above parity with men. Indeed, they more closely resemble mathematics and physical sciences (biological sciences are much closer to parity). One recent study by Kieran Healy showed philosophy to be more male than mathematics, with only computer science, physics and engineering showing lower percentages of women.

What’s the explanation for this? It used to be thought that women were simply unsuited to philosophy. As Hegel puts it: “Women can, of course, be educated, but their minds are not adapted to the higher sciences, philosophy, or certain of the arts …. The difference between man and woman is the same as between animal and plant.”

This view is, for obvious reasons, less popular now. However, quite a few people, both feminist philosophers and philosophers of psychology, have drawn on the importantly distinct idea that women approach things differently, and that philosophy is the poorer for not fitting well with women’s ways of thinking. One version of this tpm 4TH QUARTER 2012