Philosophy’s Big Oversight

What image does the word philosopher conjure? Maybe Socrates, bearded and barefoot, counseling Plato on the agora; Rousseau on one of his solitary walks around the outskirts of Paris; Sartre sucking pensively on his pipe at the Café de Flore. What it may not call to mind is a woman.

And perhaps for good reason: The field of philosophy has always had a stark gender imbalance. And it’s no different today. Though women tend to be overrepresented in the humanities in general, philosophy is an outlier. A 2018 survey of the American Philosophical Association’s membership reported that 25 percent of respondents were women, and one 2017 study similarly found that women made up 25 percent of faculty in U.S. philosophy departments.

There are likely multiple contributing factors, within departments. And just as has discouraged women from pursuing careers in STEM, myths still shape conversations about philosophy.