Women have engaged in philosophy throughout
the field's history. While there were women
philosophers since ancient times, and a relatively
small number were accepted as philosophers
during the ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary
eras, particularly during the 20th and 21st
century, almost no woman philosophers have
entered the philosophical Western canon.In
ancient philosophy in the West, while academic
philosophy was typically the domain of male
philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle,
female philosophers such as Hipparchia of
Maroneia (active ca. 325 BC), Arete of Cyrene
(active 5th–4th century BC) and Aspasia
of Miletus (470–400 BC) were active during
this period. Notable medieval philosophers
include Hypatia (5th century), St. Hildegard
of Bingen (1098-1179) and St. Catherine of
Sienna (1347-1380). Notable modern philosophers
included Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) and
Sarah Margaret Fuller (1810-1850). Influential
contemporary philosophers include Susanne
Langer (1895–1985), Hannah Arendt (1906–1975),
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986), Mary Midgley
(born 1919), Mary Warnock (born 1924), Julia
Kristeva (born 1941), Patricia Churchland
(born 1943) and Susan Haack (born 1945).
In the early 1800s, some colleges and universities
in the UK and US began admitting women, giving
rise to new generations of female academics.
Nevertheless, U.S. Department of Education
reports from the 1990s indicate that philosophy
is one of the least proportionate fields in
the humanities with respect to gender. Women
make up as little as 17% of philosophy faculty
in some studies. In 2014, Inside Higher Education
described the philosophy "...discipline’s
own long history of misogyny and sexual harassment"
of women students and professors. Jennifer
Saul, a professor of philosophy at the University
of Sheffield, stated in 2015 that women are
"...leaving philosophy after being harassed,
assaulted, or retaliated against."In the early
1990s, the Canadian Philosophical Association
claimed that there is gender imbalance and
gender bias in the academic field of philosophy.
In June 2013, a US sociology professor stated
that "out of all recent citations in four
prestigious philosophy journals, female authors
comprise just 3.6 percent of the total." The
editors of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
have raised concerns about the underrepresentation
of women philosophers, and they require editors
and writers to ensure they represent the contributions
of women philosophers. According to Eugene
Sun Park, "[p]hilosophy is predominantly white
and predominantly male. This homogeneity exists
in almost all aspects and at all levels of
the discipline." Susan Price argues that the
philosophical "...canon remains dominated
by white males—the discipline that...still
hews to the myth that genius is tied to gender."
According to Saul, "[p]hilosophy, the oldest
of the humanities, is also the malest (and
the whitest). While other areas of the humanities
are at or near gender parity, philosophy is
actually more overwhelmingly male than even
mathematics."
== 
Representation and working climate ==
In the early 1990s, the Canadian Philosophical
Association claimed that "...there is compelling
evidence" of "...philosophy’s gender imbalance"
and "bias and partiality in many of its theoretical
products." In 1992, the association recommended
that "fifty percent of [philosophy]...positions
should be filled by women.” In a 2008 article
“Changing the Ideology and Culture of Philosophy:
Not by Reason (Alone),” MIT philosophy professor
Sally Haslanger stated that the top twenty
graduate programs in philosophy in the US
have from 4 percent to 36 percent women faculty.
In June 2013, Duke University professor of
sociology Kieran Healy stated that "out of
all recent citations in four prestigious philosophy
journals, female authors comprise just 3.6
percent of the total." The editors of the
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy have raised
concerns about the underrepresentation of
women philosophers; as such, the encyclopedia
“encourage[s] [their] authors, subject editors,
and referees to help ensure that SEP entries
do not overlook the work of women or indeed
of members of underrepresented groups more
generally.”In 2014, philosophy professors
Neven Sesardic and Rafael De Clercq published
an article entitled "Women in Philosophy:
Problems with the Discrimination Hypothesis."
The article states that a "...number of philosophers
attribute the underrepresentation of women
in philosophy largely to bias against women
or some kind of wrongful discrimination".
Evidence cited includes "gender disparities
that increase along the path from undergraduate
student to full-time faculty member"; "anecdotal
accounts of discrimination in philosophy";
"research on gender bias in the evaluation
of manuscripts, grants, and curricula vitae
in other academic disciplines"; "psychological
research on implicit bias"; "psychological
research on stereotype threat" and the "...relatively
small number of articles written from a feminist
perspective in leading philosophy journals".
Sesardic and De Clercq argue that "proponents
of the discrimination hypothesis, who include
distinguished philosophers ...have tended
to present evidence selectively."American
philosopher Sally Haslanger stated in 2008
that 
"...it is very hard to find a place in philosophy
that isn’t actively hostile towards women
and minorities, or at least assumes that a
successful philosopher should look and act
like a (traditional, white) man.” Haslanger
states that she experienced “occasions when
a woman’s status in graduate school was
questioned because she was married, or had
a child (or had taken time off to have a child
so was returning to philosophy as a ‘mature’
student), or was in a long-distance relationship".
American philosopher Martha Nussbaum, who
completed a PhD in philosophy at Harvard University
in 1975, alleges that she encountered a tremendous
amount of discrimination during her studies
at Harvard, including sexual harassment and
problems getting childcare for her daughter.In
July 2015, British philosopher Mary Warnock
addressed the issue of the representation
of women in British university philosophy
departments, where 25% of faculty are women.
Warnock stated she is "... against intervention,
by quotas or otherwise, to increase women’s
chances of employment" in philosophy. She
also argues that "... there is nothing intrinsically
harmful about this imbalance" and she states
that she does not "...believe it shows a conscious
bias against women." Philosopher Julian Baggini
states that he believes that there is "...little
or no conscious discrimination against women
in philosophy". At the same time, Baggini
states that there may be a "...great deal
of unconscious bias" against women in philosophy,
because philosophy generally does not address
issues of gender or ethnicity.
=== Allegations of sexual harassment ===
In 2014, Inside Higher Education described
the philosophy "...discipline’s own long
history of misogyny and sexual harassment."
On March 28, 2011, the blog New APPS published
a post examining the allegations of persistent
sexual harassment faced by women professors
in philosophy, due largely to "serial harassers"
continuing to work in the field despite widespread
knowledge of their actions. The post proposed
that, since institutional procedures seemed
to have been ineffective at removing or punishing
harassers, philosophers should socially shun
known offenders. The story was subsequently
featured at Inside Higher Ed and several blogs,
including Gawker and Jezebel. In 2013, a series
of posts on the blog "What's it like to be
a woman in philosophy?" instigated a spate
of mainstream media articles on the continued
dominance of men in philosophy. Eric Schliesser,
a professor of philosophy at Ghent University,
said he believes that the "...systematic pattern
of exclusion of women in philosophy is, in
part, due to the fact that my profession has
allowed a culture of harassment, sexual predating,
and bullying to be reproduced from one generation
to the next."
According to Heidi Lockwood, an associate
professor of philosophy at Southern Connecticut
State University, there is a "...power “asymmetry”
between professors and students – even graduate
students"; as well, she noted that 
"...even when colleges and universities have
blanket prohibitions against professor-student
sexual relationships, as does Yale,...institution-specific
policies leave students vulnerable [to sexual
advances from faculty] at conferences."According
to an August 2013 article in Salon, a tenured
male University of Miami philosopher resigned
after allegedly "...sending emails to a [female]
student in which he suggested that they have
sex three times." Jennifer Saul, a professor
of philosophy at the University of Sheffield,
set up a blog for women philosophers in 2010.
She received numerous allegations of sexual
harassment by male philosophy faculty, including
a "job candidate who said she was sexually
assaulted at the annual APA meeting where
job interviews take place", an "undergraduate
whose professor joked publicly about dripping
hot wax on her nipples" and a "... lesbian
who found herself suddenly invited, after
she came out, to join in the sexualizing of
her female colleagues." Saul states that philosophy
departments failed to deal with the allegations.
In 2013, the American Philosophical Association
formed a committee to study the allegations
of sexual harassment of women students and
professors by male philosophy faculty. Saul
states that one of the allegations was regarding
a "...distinguished visiting speaker whose
first words are: “Show me a grad student
I can fuck”." Saul states that women are
"...leaving philosophy after being harassed,
assaulted, or retaliated against." In 2014,
Inside Higher Education reported allegations
that a Yale University philosophy professor
had sexually harassed a woman; the "alleged
victim says she reported the professor to
Yale, with no real result".
In an interview with Inside Higher Ed, the
alleged victim stated that she "...suffers
from post-traumatic stress disorder that impedes
everyday life, not only from the alleged attack
but also from the “browbeating” she endured
as she attempted to report the professor,
again and again, to Yale officials."In 1993,
the American Philosophical Association's sexual
harassment committee set out guidelines for
addressing this issue in philosophy departments.
The APA guidelines, which were revised in
2013, stated that:
"Sexual advances, requests for sexual favors,
or sexually directed remarks constitute sexual
harassment when submission to such conduct
is made a condition of academic or employment
decisions, or when such conduct persists despite
its rejection."
"Sexual harassment is a serious violation
of professional ethics, and should be regarded
and treated as such by members of the profession.
Sexual harassment is a form of prohibited
discrimination when an institution or individual
employee is aware of a sexually hostile environment
and condones, tolerates or allows that environment
to exist. Colleges and universities should
supply clear, fair institutional procedures
under which charges of sexual harassment on
campus can be brought, assessed, and acted
on."
"Complaints of sexual harassment at APA-sponsored
activities should be brought to the chair
of the committee for the defense of professional
rights of philosophers or, if they arise in
the context of placement activities, to the
APA ombudsperson. Complaints of sexual harassment
by or against APA staff members should be
brought to the chair of the board."
=== Black women ===
There are few black women philosophers, which
includes women of African and Caribbean ancestry,
African-Americans and other individuals from
the African diaspora. According to philosopher
Sally Haslanger, the "numbers of philosophers
of color, especially women of color, is even
more appalling"; in a 2003 study, there "...was
insufficient data for any racial group of
women other than white women to report." In
the United States, the "...representation
of scholars of color is plausibly worse than
in any other field in the academy, including
not only physics, but also engineering." According
to professor L.K. McPherson, there is a "gross
underrepresentation of blacks in philosophy."
McPherson states that there is a "...willful,
not necessarily a conscious, preference among
many members of the philosophy profession
largely to maintain the status quo in terms
of: the social group profiles of members;
the dynamics of prestige and influence; and
the areas and questions deemed properly or
deeply 'philosophical.' None of this is good
for black folk."The first black woman in the
US to do a PhD in philosophy was Joyce Mitchell
Cook, who obtained her degree in 1965 from
Yale University. LaVerne Shelton was also
one of the earliest black women to receive
a PhD in philosophy. Other notable women include
Angela Davis, a political activist who specializes
in writing about feminism, critical theory,
Marxism, popular music, social consciousness,
and the philosophy of punishment and prisons;
Kathryn Gines, the founding director of the
Collegium of Black Woman Philosophers, who
specializes in continental philosophy, Africana
philosophy, philosophy of race and Black feminist
philosophy; Anita L. Allen, the first African-American
woman to complete both a JD and a PhD in philosophy,
who focuses on political and legal philosophy,
and who in 2010 was appointed by President
Obama to sit on the Presidential Commission
for the Study of Bioethical Issues; and Adrian
Piper, an analytical philosopher who received
a PhD in philosophy from Harvard; Jaqueline
Scott, who received a PhD in philosophy from
Stanford University, and who specializes in
Nietzsche, nineteenth-century philosophy,
race theory and African-American philosophy.
=== Asian women ===
Few Asian women are recognized in contemporary
Western philosophy. In a New York Times interview
with George Yancy, Korean-American philosopher
Emily S. Lee, assistant professor of philosophy
at California State University, Fullerton,
states, "I wonder if some of my experiences
occur from being Asian-American, in the ways
people stereotypically assume that I must
specialize in certain areas of philosophy
or behave in specific ways, such as being
quiet and subdued." She postulates that the
social forces that stereotype and encourage
Asian-Americans to enter more lucrative and
secure fields (such as engineering or medicine)
combined with influences within the field
of philosophy discouraging Asian-American
youths from continuing their study in the
field has led to the extremely small population
of Asian-American female philosophers. University
of Washington philosophy professor Carole
Lee's report in the American Philosophical
Association's newsletter on Asian and Asian-American
Philosophers and Philosophies suggests that
Asian women face conflicting stereotypes,
making it difficult for them to fit into the
field of philosophy: "Women are stereotyped
as submissive rather than aggressive and as
being bad at math: they lack both characteristics
associated with philosophy." On the other
had, "Asian Americans are stereotyped as being
mathematical; however, they are characterized
in passive rather than aggressive terms."
Philosopher David Kim offers the explanation
that a lack of Asian American mentors in philosophy
and "derogation of philosophical thought that
resonates with their identity" may also contribute
to the wide disparity.
== Reports from the US ==
U.S. Department of Education reports indicate
that philosophy is one of the least proportionate
fields in the humanities with respect to gender.
Although reports indicate that philosophy
as a professional field is disproportionately
male, no clear, unequivocal data exists on
the number of women currently in philosophy,
or indeed, on the number of men in philosophy,
and it is debatable how to define what it
means to be ‘in philosophy.’ This can
variously be defined as the current number
of Ph.D. holders in philosophy, the current
number of women teaching philosophy in two-
and four- year institutions of higher learning
either/both full-time and/or part-time (no
one data set exists which measures these),
or the current number of living women with
publications in philosophy. The lack of clear
data makes it difficult to establish gender
proportions, but the consensus among those
who have tried to arrive at an estimate is
that women make up between 17% and 30% of
academically employed philosophers.The National
Center for Education Statistics' 2000 report,
"Salary, Promotion, and Tenure Status of Minority
and Women Faculty in U.S. Colleges and Universities,"
estimates in Table 23 that the total number
of "History and Philosophy" U.S. citizens
and full-time faculty who primarily taught
in 1992 was 19,000, of which 79% were men
(i.e. 15,010 men in history and philosophy),
21% were women (3,990). They add, "In fact,
men were at least twice as likely as women
to teach history and philosophy."
In their 1997 report, "Characteristics and
Attitudes of Instructional Faculty and Staff
in the Humanities," NCES notes, that about
"one-half of full-time instructional faculty
and staff in 4-year institutions in English
and literature (47 percent) and foreign languages
(50 percent) were female in the fall of 1992,
compared with less than one-half of instructional
faculty and staff in history (24 percent)
and philosophy and religion (13 percent) (table
4)." In this report they measure Philosophy
and Religion in the same data set, and estimate
the total number of full-time instructional
Philosophy and Religion faculty and staff
in 4-yr institutions to be 7,646. Of these,
87.3% are male (6675 men),
12.7 are female (971 women). The 1997 report
measures History Full-time instructional faculty
and staff in 4-yr institutions to be 11,383;
male:76.3 (8,686 men);
female: 23.7 (2,697 women). The numbers of
women in philosophy from the two studies are
not easily comparable, but one rough method
may be to subtract the number of women in
history in the 1997 report from the number
of women estimated to be in 'history and philosophy'
in the 2000 report. Doing so suggests that
as a rough estimate, 1,293 women are employed
as instructors of philosophy.
The 1997 report indicates that a large portion
of all humanities instructors are part-time.
Part-time employees are disproportionately
female but not majority female. Therefore,
considerations of full-time employees only
necessarily leave out data on many women working
part-time to remain active in their field.
In 2004, the percentage of Ph.D.s in philosophy,
within the U.S., going to women reached a
record high percentage: 33.3%, or 121 of the
363 doctorates awarded.
== Organizations and campaigns ==
=== 
Minorities and Philosophy ===
Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) is an international
movement of graduate and undergraduate students
and faculty members in philosophy working
on issues related to “the underrepresentation
of women an minorities in philosophy.” MAP
consists of chapters at universities around
the world, and the format can vary from school
to school. However, all chapters focus broadly
on issues minorities face in the profession,
philosophical issues regarding minorities,
and work done by minority philosophers, as
well as issues that are specific to that school’s
philosophy department. MAP’s short-term
goals include providing a space for students
to discuss and work on these issues, and long-term
goals include contributing to the culture
of academic philosophy and increasing participation
and recognition of minorities in philosophy.
In recent years, MAP has fostered collaborative
work between chapters, establishing "connections
between chapters that benefit both members
and departments long-term," increased work
on inclusive pedagogy, and organized efforts
to bring philosophy into communities outside
of university campuses, such as prisons and
elementary schools.
=== APA committee on the status of women in
philosophy ===
The Committee on the Status of Women is a
committee of the American Philosophical Association
devoted to the assessment and reporting on
the status of women in philosophy. It is currently
chaired by Hilde Lindemann. In April 2007,
the Committee on the Status of Women co-sponsored
a session on the central question "Why Are
Women Only 21% of Philosophy". At this session,
Sharon Crasnow suggested that the low numbers
of women in philosophy may be due to:
Differential treatment: male and female university
students may be treated differently in the
classroom.
Vicious circle: female students do not feel
inclined to study philosophy because of a
lack of contact with female philosophy professors.
Misleading statistics: university administrators
focus on gender representation in the humanities
overall, which obscures the disparity in philosophy.
=== Society for Women in Philosophy ===
The Society for Women in Philosophy is a group
created in 1972 that seeks to support and
promote women in philosophy. It has a number
of branches around the world, including in
New York, the American Pacific, the United
Kingdom and Canada. Each year, the society
names one philosopher the distinguished woman
philosopher of the year.Honorees include:
2016: Maria Lugones (Binghamton University)
2014: Peggy DesAutels
2013: Alison Wylie (University of Washington,
Seattle)
2012: Diana Tietjens Meyers
2011: Jennifer Saul
2010: Sally Haslanger (MIT)
2009: Lorraine Code
2008: Nancy Tuana
2007: Joan Callahan
2006: Ruth Millikan
2005: Linda Martín Alcoff
2004: Susan Sherwin
2003: Eva Feder Kittay
2002: Sara Ruddick
2001: Amelie Rorty
=== Gendered conference campaign ===
The blog Feminist Philosophers hosts the Gendered
Conference Campaign, which works toward increasing
the representation of women at philosophy
conferences and in edited volumes. The blog
states that "all-male events and volumes help
to perpetuate the stereotyping of philosophy
as male. This in turn to contributes to implicit
bias against women in philosophy...."
== History ==
While there were women philosophers since
the earliest times, and some were accepted
as philosophers during their lives, almost
no woman philosophers have entered the philosophical
Western canon. Historians of philosophy are
faced with two main problems. The first being
the exclusion of women philosophers from history
and philosophy texts, which leads to a lack
of knowledge about women philosophers among
philosophy students. The second problem deals
with what the canonical philosophers had to
say about philosophy and women's place in
it. In the past twenty-five years there has
been an exponential increase in feminist writing
about the history of philosophy and what has
been considered the philosophical canon. According
to Eugene Sun Park, "[p]hilosophy is predominantly
white and predominantly male. This homogeneity
exists in almost all aspects and at all levels
of the discipline." According to Jennifer
Saul, a professor of philosophy at the University
of Sheffield, "[p]hilosophy, the oldest of
the humanities, is also the malest (and the
whitest). While other areas of the humanities
are at or near gender parity, philosophy is
actually more overwhelmingly male than even
mathematics."
In the May 13, 2015 issue of The Atlantic,
Susan Price notes that even though Kant's
first work in 1747 cites Émilie Du Châtelet,
a philosopher who was a "...scholar of Newton,
religion, science, and mathematics", "her
work won’t be found in the 1,000-plus pages
of the new edition of The Norton Introduction
to Philosophy." The Norton Introduction does
not name a female philosopher until the book
begins to cover the mid-20th century. Scholars
argue that women philosophers are also absent
from the "...other leading anthologies used
in university classrooms." Price states that
university philosophy anthologies do not usually
mention 17th century women philosophers such
as Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway, and Lady
Damaris Masham. Price argues that the philosophical
"...canon remains dominated by white males—the
discipline that some say still hews to the
myth that genius is tied to gender." Amy Ferrer,
executive director of the American Philosophical
Association, states that “...women have
been systematically left out of the canon,
and that women coming in have not been able
to see how much influence women have had in
the field." The Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
which as published in 1967, had "...articles
on over 900 philosophers, [but it] did not
include an entry for Wollstonecraft, Arendt
or de Beauvoir. "[T]hese women philosophers
were scarcely even marginal" to the canon
set out at the time.Explaining the very small
number of women philosophers, American academic
and social critic Camille Paglia (born 1947)
argues that "...women in general are less
comfortable than men in inhabiting a highly
austere, cold, analytical space, such as the
one which philosophy involves. Women as a
whole ...are more drawn to practical, personal
matters. It is not that they inherently lack
a talent or aptitude for philosophy or higher
mathematics, but rather that they are more
unwilling than men to devote their lives to
a frigid space from which the natural and
the human have been eliminated." Paglia claims
that "[t]oday's lack of major female philosophers
is not due to lack of talent but to the collapse
of philosophy", because, in her view, philosophy
"... as traditionally practised may be a dead
genre" that "belongs to a vanished age of
much slower and rhetorically formal inquiry."
=== Ancient philosophy ===
Some of the earliest philosophers were women,
such as Hipparchia of Maroneia (active ca.
325 BC), Arete of Cyrene (active 5th–4th
century BC) and Aspasia of Miletus (470–400
BC). Aspasia appears in the philosophical
writings of Plato, Xenophon, Aeschines Socraticus
and Antisthenes. Some scholars argue that
Plato was impressed by her intelligence and
wit and based his character Diotima in the
Symposium on her. Socrates attributes to the
(possibly fictional) Diotima of Mantinea his
lessons in the art of Eros (or philosophical
searching). Plato's final views on women are
highly contested, but the Republic suggests
that women are equally capable of education,
intellectual vision, and rule of the city.Other
notable philosophers include:
Theano of Croton (6th century BC)
Aristoclea of Delphi (6th century BC)
Sosipatra of Ephesus (4th century BC)
Nicarete of Megara (flourished around 300
BC)
Catherine of Alexandria (282-305)
Ptolemais of Cyrene (3rd century BC)
Aesara of Lucania (3rd century BC)
Diotima of Mantinea (appears in Plato's Symposium)
Ban Zhao (c. 35–100)D2
Xie Daoyun (before 340 - after 399)
Gargi Vachaknavi (7th century BC)
=== Medieval philosophy ===
Medieval philosophy dates from the fall of
the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century
AD to the Renaissance in the 16th century.
Hypatia (AD 350 – 370 to 415) was a Greek
mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher
in Egypt, then a part of the Eastern Roman
Empire. She was the head of the Neoplatonic
school at Alexandria, where she taught philosophy
and astronomy.Other notable woman philosophers
include:
Aedesia of Alexandria (5th century AD)
Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
Tullia d'Aragona (c. 1510-1556)
Moderata Fonte (1555–1592), critic of religion,
feminist
=== Modern philosophy ===
The 17th century marks the beginning of the
modern philosophy era, which ended in the
early 20th century. During the 17th century,
various women philosophers argued for the
importance of education for women and two
women philosophers influenced René Descartes
and during the early part of the 18th century,
two women philosophers commented on John Locke’s
philosophy. Laura Bassi (1711–1778) was
the first woman to earn a university chair
in a scientific field. Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793)
demanded that French women be given the same
rights as men, a position also taken by Judith
Sargent Murray (1751–1820) in her essay
"On the Equality of the Sexes" and Mary Wollstonecraft
in her essay A Vindication of the Rights of
Woman (1792). During the 19th century, Harriet
Martineau (1802–1876) criticized the state
of women's education and Harriet Taylor Mill
(1807–1858), Sarah Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)
and Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921)
called for women's rights. Charlotte Perkins
Gilman (1860–1935) argued that women were
oppressed by an androcentric culture. Near
the start of the 20th century, Mary Whiton
Calkins (1863–1930) was the first woman
to become president of the American Philosophical
Association. Women thinkers such as Emma Goldman
(1869–1940), an anarchist, and
Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919), a Marxist theorist,
are known for their political views.
==== 17th century ====
Marie de Gournay (1565–1645) was a critic
of religion, proto-feminist, translator and
novelist who insisted that women should be
educated.
Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678) was
a multilinguist known for her defense of female
education.
Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618–1680) influenced
many key figures and philosophers, most notably
René Descartes, who she corresponded with.
She questioned Descartes' idea of dualism,
or the mind being separate from the body,
and his theories regarding communication between
the mind and body.
Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673) was a philosopher
and writer who addressed gender, power, manners,
scientific methods, and philosophy.
Anne Conway (1631-1679) was an English philosopher
whose work, in the tradition of the Cambridge
Platonists, was an influence on Leibniz. Conway's
thought is original as it is rationalist philosophy,
with hallmarks of gynocentric concerns and
patterns, and in that sense it was unique
among seventeenth-century systems.
Damaris Cudworth Masham (1659–1708) was
an English philosopher, proto-feminist, and
advocate for women's education.
Mary Astell (1666–1731) was an English feminist
writer and rhetorician known for advocacy
of equal educational opportunities for women,
which earned her the title of "first English
feminist." Her most well known books outline
her plan to establish a new type of educational
institution for women.
==== 18th century ====
Catharine Trotter Cockburn (1679–1749) published
her first major philosophical work, A Defence
of Mr. Lock[e]'s An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding in 1702, at the age of 23. Much
of the scholarly interest in her writing centres
on gender studies.
Émilie du Châtelet (1706–1749) was a French
mathematician, physicist, and author during
the Age of Enlightenment. She translated and
commented on Isaac Newton's work Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica. She criticized
John Locke’s philosophy and emphasizes the
necessity of the verification of knowledge
through experience. She also theorized about
free will and on the way to do metaphysics.
Laura Bassi (1711–1778) was an Italian philosopher
and physicist who was the first woman in the
world to earn a university chair in a scientific
field of studies. She received a doctoral
degree from the University of Bologna in May
1732, the third academic qualification ever
bestowed on a woman by a university, and the
first woman to earn a professorship in physics
at a university in Europe. She was the first
woman to be offered an official teaching position
at a university in Europe.
Catharine Macaulay (1731–1791) was an English
historian and writer. She attacked Edmund
Burke's Thoughts on the Cause of the Present
Discontents, calling it "a poison...". In
her 1790 Letters on Education, she argued
along the lines that Mary Wollstonecraft would
do in 1792, that the apparent weakness of
women was due to their mis-education.
Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793) was a French
playwright and political activist whose feminist
and abolitionist writings reached a large
audience. She was an early feminist who demanded
that French women be given the same rights
as French men. In her Declaration of the Rights
of Woman and the Female Citizen (1791), she
challenged the practice of male authority
and the notion of male–female inequality.
Judith Sargent Murray (1751–1820) was an
early American advocate for women's rights,
an essayist, playwright, poet, and letter
writer. She was one of the first American
proponents of the idea of the equality of
the sexes—that women, like men, had the
capability of intellectual accomplishment
and should be able to achieve economic independence.
Among many other influential pieces, her landmark
essay "On the Equality of the Sexes" paved
the way for new thoughts and ideas proposed
by other feminist writers of the century.
The essay predated Mary Wollstonecraft's A
Vindication of the Rights of Woman which was
published in 1792.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was an English
writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's
rights. She is regarded as one of the founding
feminist philosophers. In A Vindication of
the Rights of Woman (1792), her most famous
and influential work, she argues that women
are not naturally inferior to men, but appear
to be only because they lack education. She
suggests that both men and women should be
treated as rational beings and imagines a
social order founded on reason.
==== 19th century ====
Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) was an English
social theorist and political writer, often
cited as the first female sociologist. She
wrote books and essays from a sociological,
holistic, religious, domestic, and feminine
perspective. In Society in America, she criticised
the state of women's education, stating that
the "intellect of women is confined by an
unjustifiable restriction" of access to education;
she urged women to become well-educated and
free.
Harriet Taylor Mill (1807–1858) was a philosopher
and women's rights advocate. In John Stuart
Mill's autobiography, he claimed she was the
joint author of most of the books and articles
published under his name. He stated that "when
two persons have their thoughts and speculations
completely in common it is of little consequence,
in respect of the question of originality,
which of them holds the pen." Together, they
wrote "Early Essays on Marriage and Divorce",
published in 1832. The debate about the nature
and extent of her collaboration is ongoing.
Sarah Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) was an American
journalist, critic, philosopher and women's
rights advocate. Her book Woman in the Nineteenth
Century is considered the first major feminist
work in the United States. She was an advocate
of women's rights and, in particular, women's
education and the right to employment. Many
other advocates for women's rights and feminism,
including Susan B. Anthony, cite Fuller as
a source of inspiration.
Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921) was
the first woman to be ordained as a mainstream
Protestant minister in the United States.
She was a well-versed public speaker on controversial
issues such as abolition of slavery and she
sought to expand women's rights. In 1873 Blackwell
founded the Association for the Advancement
of Women.
Victoria, Lady Welby (1837–1912) was a self-educated
English philosopher of language. She was published
articles in the leading English language academic
journals of the day, Mind and The Monist.
She published her first philosophical book,
What Is Meaning? Studies in the Development
of Significance in 1903, following it with
Significs and Language: The Articulate Form
of Our Expressive and Interpretive Resources
in 1911. Welby's concern with the problem
of meaning included (perhaps especially) the
everyday use of language, and she coined the
word significs for her approach. Welby's theories
on signification anticipated contemporary
semantics, semiotics, and semiology.
Bertha von Suttner (1843–1914) was a Czech-Austrian
pacifist and novelist. In 1905 she was the
first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize. Suttner's pacifism was influenced by
the writings of Immanuel Kant, Henry Thomas
Buckle, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin and
Leo Tolstoy (Tolstoy praised Die Waffen nieder!).
Helene von Druskowitz (1856–1918) was an
Austrian philosopher, writer and music critic.
She was the second woman to obtain a Doctorate
in Philosophy, which she obtained in Zürich.
She usually published under a male alias because
of the predominant sexism of the era.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) was
an American feminist, sociologist, novelist,
writer and social reformer. Her short story
"The Yellow Wallpaper" became a bestseller.
The story is about a woman who suffers from
mental illness after three months of being
closeted in a room by her husband. She argued
that the domestic environment oppressed women
through the patriarchal beliefs upheld by
society. Gilman argued that women's contributions
to civilization, throughout history, have
been halted because of an androcentric culture.
She argued that women were the underdeveloped
half of humanity. She believed economic independence
would bring freedom and equality for women.
==== Early 20th century ====
Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930) was an American
philosopher and psychologist. She was also
the first woman to become president of the
American Psychological Association and the
American Philosophical Association. Calkins
studied psychology under William James and
studied at Harvard University, which allowed
her to attend courses but refused to register
her as a student, because she was a woman.
She published her doctoral dissertation in
1896, and Harvard's Department of Philosophy
and Psychology recommended that she be granted
her PhD, but Harvard's President and board
refused, as she was a woman. The President
believed women should not study with men.
James was astonished at the university's decision,
as he described her performance as "the most
brilliant examination for the Ph.D. that we
have had at Harvard." She published four books
and over one hundred papers in her career
in psychology and philosophy. She was also
an avid supporter of women's rights and an
advocate of women's right to vote.
Emma Goldman (1869–1940) was an anarchist
known for her political activism, writing
and speeches. She played a pivotal role in
the development of anarchist political philosophy
in the first half of the 20th century. She
was viewed as a free-thinking "rebel woman"
by admirers, and denounced by critics as an
advocate of violent revolution. Her writing
and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues,
including atheism, freedom of speech, militarism,
capitalism, marriage, free love, and homosexuality.
Although she distanced herself from first-wave
feminism and its efforts toward women's suffrage,
she developed ways of incorporating gender
politics into anarchism.
Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) was a Marxist
theorist, philosopher, economist and revolutionary
socialist of Polish-Jewish descent. While
Luxemburg defended Marx's materialism dialectics
and his conception of history, she called
for spontaneous grass roots-based class struggle.
=== Contemporary philosophy ===
Contemporary philosophy is the present period
in the history of Western philosophy beginning
at the end of the 19th century with the professionalization
of the discipline and the rise of analytic
and continental philosophy. Some influential
women philosophers from this period include:
Ayn Rand (1905-1982) developed a philosophical
system she named Objectivism, which affirms
objective reality and advocates holding reason
as absolute. In ethics, Rand championed rational
egoism and individualism. In politics, she
advocated for individual rights and capitalism.
In esthetics, she upheld romanticism. Rand
regards Aristotle as her sole major philosophical
influence.
Susanne Langer (1895–1985) was an American
philosopher of mind and of art, who was influenced
by Ernst Cassirer and Alfred North Whitehead.
She was one of the first women to achieve
an academic career in philosophy and the first
woman to be popularly and professionally recognized
as an American philosopher. Langer is best
known for her 1942 book entitled Philosophy
in a New Key. It argued that there is a basic
and pervasive human need to symbolize, to
invent meanings, and to invest meanings in
one’s world.
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) was a German-born
American assimilated Jewish political theorist.
Though often described as a philosopher, she
rejected that label on the grounds that philosophy
is concerned with "man in the singular" and
instead described herself as a political theorist
because her work centers on the fact that
"men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit
the world." Her works deal with the nature
of power, and the subjects of politics, direct
democracy, authority, and totalitarianism.
The Hannah Arendt Prize is named in her honor.
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) was a French
writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher,
political activist, feminist and social theorist.
Though she did not consider herself a philosopher,
she had a significant influence on both feminist
existentialism and feminist theory. De Beauvoir
wrote novels, essays, biographies, autobiography
and monographs on philosophy, politics and
social issues. She is known for her 1949 treatise
The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's
oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary
feminism.
Elizabeth Anscombe (1919–2001), usually
cited as G. E. M. Anscombe, was a British
analytic philosopher. Anscombe's 1958 article
"Modern Moral Philosophy" introduced the term
"consequentialism" into the language of analytic
philosophy, and had a seminal influence on
contemporary virtue ethics. Her monograph
Intention is generally recognised as her greatest
and most influential work, and the continuing
philosophical interest in the concepts of
intention, action and practical reasoning
can be said to have taken its main impetus
from this work. Mary Warnock described her
in 2006 as "the undoubted giant among women
philosophers" while John Haldane said she
"certainly has a good claim to be the greatest
woman philosopher of whom we know".
Mary Midgley (born 1919) is an English moral
philosopher. A senior lecturer in philosophy
at Newcastle University, she is known for
her work on science, ethics and animal rights.
Midgley strongly opposes reductionism and
scientism, and any attempts to make science
a substitute for the humanities—a role for
which it is, she argues, wholly inadequate.
She has written extensively about what philosophers
can learn from nature, particularly from animals.
The Guardian has described her as a fiercely
combative philosopher and the UK's "foremost
scourge of 'scientific pretension.'"
Mary Warnock (born 1924) is a British philosopher
of morality, education and mind, and writer
on existentialism. From 1984 to 1991, she
was Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge.
Warnock studied at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford,
and was made an Honorary Fellow in 1984. She
delivered the Gifford Lectures, entitled "Imagination
and Understanding," at the University of Glasgow
in 1992. She has written extensively on ethics,
existentialism and philosophy of mind.
Philippa Foot (1920-2010) was a British philosopher,
most notable for her works in ethics. She
was one of the founders of contemporary virtue
ethics, inspired by the ethics of Aristotle.
Her later career marked a significant change
in view from her work in the 1950s and '60s,
and may be seen as an attempt to modernize
Aristotelian ethical theory, to show that
it is adaptable to a contemporary world view,
and thus, that it could compete with such
popular theories as modern deontological and
utilitarian ethics. Some of her work was crucial
in the re-emergence of normative ethics within
analytic philosophy, especially her critique
of consequentialism and of non-cognitivism.
A familiar example is the continuing discussion
of an example of hers referred to as the trolley
problem. Foot's approach was influenced by
the later work of Wittgenstein, although she
rarely dealt explicitly with materials treated
by him.
Patricia Churchland (born 1943) is a Canadian-American
philosopher noted for her contributions to
neurophilosophy and the philosophy of mind.
She is UC President's professor of philosophy
emerita at the University of California, San
Diego (UCSD), where she has taught since 1984.
Educated at the University of British Columbia,
the University of Pittsburgh, and the University
of Oxford, she taught philosophy at the University
of Manitoba from 1969 to 1984.
Susan Haack (born 1945) is distinguished professor
in the humanities, professor of philosophy,
and professor of law at the University of
Miami. She earned her PhD at Cambridge University.
She has written on logic, the philosophy of
language, epistemology, and metaphysics. Her
pragmatism follows that of Charles Sanders
Peirce. Haack's major contribution to philosophy
is her epistemological theory called foundherentism,
which is her attempt to avoid the logical
problems of both pure foundationalism (which
is susceptible to infinite regress) and pure
coherentism (which is susceptible to circularity).
Haack has been a fierce critic of Richard
Rorty. She is critical of the view that there
is a specifically female perspective on logic
and scientific truth and is critical of feminist
epistemology. She holds that many feminist
critiques of science and philosophy are overly
concerned with 'political correctness'.Other
notable philosophers include:
Alice Ambrose (1906–2001)
Simone Weil (1909–1943)
Raya Dunayevskaya (1910–1987)
Jeanne Hersch (1910–2000)
Iris Murdoch (1919–1999)
Mary Hesse (1924-2016)
Cora Diamond (born 1937)
Marilyn Frye (born 1941)
Julia Kristeva (born 1941)
Nancy Fraser (born 1947)
Martha Nussbaum (born 1947)
Rebecca Goldstein (born 1950)
Christine Korsgaard (born 1952)
Linda Martín Alcoff (born 1955)
Judith Butler (born 1956)
Ruth Hagengruber (born 1958)
Nancy Bauer (born 1960)
Tamar Gendler (born 1965)
Alice Crary (born 1967)
Rahel Jaeggi (born 1967)
== See also ==
List of female philosophers
Hypatia transracialism controversy
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Alanen, Lilli, and Witt, Charlotte, eds.,
2004. Feminist Reflections on the History
of Philosophy, Dordrecht/Boston: Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
Alcoff, Linda Martin. Singing in the Fire:
Stories of Women in Philosophy by Lanham,
Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003.
Antony, Louise. “Different Voices or Perfect
Storm: Why Are There So Few Women in Philosophy?”
in the Journal of Social Philosophy.
Arisaka, Yoki. “Asian Women: Invisibility,
Locations, and Claims to Philosophy” in
Women of Color in Philosophy.
Deutscher, Penelope, 1997. Yielding Gender:
Feminism, Deconstruction and the History of
Philosophy, London and New York: Routledge.
Haslanger, Sally. “Changing the Ideology
and Culture of Philosophy: Not by Reason (Alone)”
in Hypatia (Spring 2008)
Haslanger, Sally (2011). "Are We Breaking
the Ivory Ceiling?".
Hollinger, David. The Humanities and the Dynamics
of Inclusion since World War II
Kourany, Janet A. “How Do Women Fare in
Philosophy Journals? An Introduction,” APA
Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy 10,
no. 1 (Fall 2010): 5.
Lloyd, Genevieve (ed.), 2002. Feminism and
History of Philosophy (Oxford Readings in
Feminism), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Okin, Susan Moller, 1979. Women in Western
Political Thought, Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
O'Neill, Eileen, 1998. “Disappearing Ink:
Early Modern Women Philosophers and Their
Fate in History,” in Janet Kourany (ed.),
Philosophy in a Feminist Voice: Critiques
and Reconstructions, Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
Paxton, Molly; Figdor, Carrie Figdor, and
Valerie Tiberius. “Quantifying the Gender
Gap: An Empirical Study of the Underrepresentation
of Women in Philosophy”, part of the Society
for Philosophy and Psychology’s Diversity
initiatives.
Tarver, Erin C. “The Dismissal of Feminist
Philosophy and Hostility to Women in the Profession,”
APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy
12, no. 2 (Spring 2013): 8.
Tuana, Nancy, 1992. Woman and the History
of Philosophy, New York: Paragon Press.
Waithe, Mary Ellen (ed.), 1987–1991. A History
of Women Philosophers (Volumes 1–3), Dordrecht:
Kluwer Academic Publishing.
Warnock, Mary (ed.), 1996. Women Philosophers,
London: J.M. Dent.
Witt, Charlotte (2006). "Feminist Interpretations
of the Philosophical Canon". Signs: Journal
of Women in Culture and Society. 31 (2): 537–552.
doi:10.1086/491677.
== External links ==
Project Vox "seeks to recover the lost voices
of women who have been ignored in standard
narratives of the history of modern philosophy.
We aim to change those narratives, thereby
changing what students around the world learn
about philosophy’s history"
Tenured/tenure-track faculty women at 98 U.S.
doctoral programs in philosophy on a website
maintained by Julie Van Camp, a professor
of philosophy at California State University
– Long Beach
The blog "What is it like to be a Woman in
Philosophy?" collects "short observations"
submitted by readers regarding women's experiences,
both positive and negative, in the field of
philosophy.
The UPDirectory publicizes information about
philosophers who are members of traditionally
underrepresented groups in philosophy. The
purpose of the directory is to provide an
easy-to-use resource for anyone who wants
to learn more about the work of philosophers
who belong to underrepresented groups within
the discipline.
