1. New Chair and New Committee Members

On July 1, Eva Kittay assumed the Chair of the Committee. Other new members are Nancy Tuana, Mary Mahowald, and Judith Green. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome them warmly, and to thank all members of the committee who have served during the time I have been Chair. I’m most grateful for the opportunity I have had to work with all of you, and I hope you will all call on me in whatever way you want for assistance in any projects of the Committee.

2. Meeting of Chair with National Board

At the meeting of the National Board of Officers in October 1996, the Chair met with the Board to discuss the activities of the Committee, as part of a Board practice of reviewing the functions of its major committees at periodic intervals. The Board expressed enthusiasm about our public fora to discuss issues of concern to women in the profession. The issue that occupied most of our discussion was the need (insisted on by the Chair) to make the CSW more international, more in touch with women in philosophy in other nations and more of a resource for them in their efforts. The Chair stressed that this internationalizing would require financial support, not only for visitors at program sessions, but also for international book exchanges and, ideally, meetings jointly with similar committees in other nations. The Board in principle expressed considerable enthusiasm for this goal, but could do little to further it because of the funding structure of the APA, in which all major funds are concentrated in the Divisions. Board members urged us to approach the Divisions, especially the Eastern Division, for assistance with this project. The Chair recommends that current and future members of the Committee discuss this recommendation and, if you see fit, that you pursue it energetically.

3. Meeting of Committee, December 1996

At the Eastern Division Meeting in December 1996 we held a meeting of the Committee that was attended by six members. We discussed future program sessions, our public forum for 1997, the editorship of the Newsletter, and other future projects.

4. Public Fora

Our idea of having an annual public forum at the Eastern Division Meeting, to discuss some issue of concern to women in the profession, is becoming institutionalized as we have hoped. December 27 at 8 PM is now our canonical hour, and our practice of distributing lots of flyers at registration helped to create a good crowd. Our second annual forum took place on December 27, 1996, on the topic: "Do Women Still Need Affirmative Action?" It was attended by around 75 people. The four panelists who made opening presentations were: Louise Antony of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Susan Haack of the University of Miami, Coral Gables; Patricia Smith of the University of Kentucky; and Laurence Thomas of Syracuse University. I would like to take this opportunity to express my very warm thanks to all the participants for the high quality of their contributions and for the civility with which they argued on an extremely divisive issue. The discussion from the floor was vigorous, and in general the issue got a thorough, and philosophical, airing.

In December 1997, the Public Forum topic will be sexual harassment.

5. Program Sessions

The program session on Latina feminism at the December meeting was also very successful.

At the 1997 Eastern Division meeting the CSW will sponsor, jointly with the Committee on International Cooperation, a forum on the topic, "Is the Language of Rights Good for Women?" The session is being organized by David Crocker (CIC) and Martha Nussbaum (CSW). Confirmed speakers are: Catharine MacKinnon (University of Michigan and University of Chicago), Elizabeth Kiss (Duke University), and Wendy Brown (University of California-Santa Cruz). Martha Nussbaum will comment.

Other program sessions are currently being organized by Uma Narayan and Laurence Thomas.

6. Directory of Women in Philosophy

The Directory, so long in preparation has now been formatted and made available through the APA web page, courtesy of Krist Bender and Cynthia Freeland.

7. Chair’s Concluding Thoughts

I want to take this last opportunity to say a little more about the topic I raised under #2. Women in philosophy in the United States have many problems. But in many respects their situation is good compared to that of women in most other nations of the world. In Sweden, not a single woman has a full-time position in philosophy in a philosophy department (although a few are employed in women’s studies programs). In Germany, only two chairs of philosophy are held by women in the entire nation, and even the liberal department in Frankfurt recently voted not to include Feminism in the job description for a new professional position. In Norway, women are by and large employed in departments of History of Ideas, which are less prestigious than Philosophy departments, and are looked down on by them. If things are this way even in nations where women on the whole do well (in political representation, wage equality, and so forth), you can guess, and you’d be basically right, that they do even worse in nations where women do worse. I have sometimes been asked by people I meet elsewhere in the world to give them advice as to where a woman would experience least discrimination and harassment as a graduate student in philosophy, and I have had to say, in my view, the United States, although I don’t say this with pride.

• From the Editor
• About the Newsletter
• News from the Committee on the Status of Women
• From the New Chair
• Book Reviews
  • Recent Feminist Philosophy Textbooks, Reviewed by Amy Mullin
  • Free Spirits: Feminist Philosophers on Culture and Gender Basics: Feminist Perspectives on Women and Men, Reviewed by Jessica Prata Miller
  • The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory and Women, Knowledge and Reality: Explorations in Feminist Philosophy, Reviewed by Cynthia A. Stark
  • Ethics: A Feminist Reader and Living with Contradictions: Controversies in Feminist Social Ethics, Reviewed by Margaret A. McLaren
  • Hypatia's Daughters: Fifteen Hundred Years of Women Philosophers, Reviewed by Julie M. Zilberberg
• Notes on Contributors