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Fall 2006
Volume 06, Number 1

Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy

News from the Committee on the Status of Women

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Once again, Sally Scholz has produced an informative and excellent Newsletter issue. I always look forward to its publication. I find it one of the best publications available on recent advances in feminist scholarship in particular and gender-related scholarship in general.

This last year the Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) was particularly active. We arranged two panels at each of the Division meetings. Tracy Edwards organized a panel on "Ontology of Race and Gender" and a panel on "Pornography Revisited" at the 2005 Eastern Division meeting. Sharon Crasnow organized a panel on "Women’s Choices: Family Matters in the Profession" and a panel on "Publishing as a Feminist" at the 2006 Pacific Division meeting. Anita Superson organized a panel on "Teaching in a Climate of Conservation" and a panel on "Feminism and Disability" at the 2006 Central Division meeting. Among the co-sponsors of one or more of these panels were the Committee on Inclusiveness, the Committee for the Defense of Professional Rights of Philosophers, and the Committee on Philosophy and Law. The CSW makes a point of collaborating whenever possible with other committees attentive to the voices and interests of women philosophers.

As usual, the CSW focused some attention on (1) structural issues such as the Committee on Committees’ criteria for selection of new committee members and chairs and (2) financial issues such as the size of the annual budgets provided by the National Office to the various standing and diversity committees. In the main, however, the CSW reflected on the fact that despite all the progress women in the profession have made, philosophy remains what may be the most male-populated field in the humanities. According to available APA data, a persistent 75 percent male/25 percent female breakdown seems to be our profession’s continuing fate. Moreover, as Margaret Urban Walker has noted, a "discussive/professional tipping point," at which women’s ways of thinking, doing, and speaking are just as likely to be the order of the day as men’s, does not occur until a profession is well over 30 percent female, most usually 50 percent female. The profession of philosophy must work harder to attract more women to its ranks, to make gender part of philosophy’s "must-know" critical repertory, and to serve the interests of all women in the profession, including those who work in its margins. Based on considerable anecdotal information (empirical data is in short supply), there is reason to think that a significant number of women philosophers are not tenure track and/or members of the APA. Some of these women have Ph.D.s, but many of them terminated their studies at the MA level. They work in community colleges and in prep schools, or as part-timers at universities and colleges. Some of these women work where they do because it is their choice to do so. Others work where they do because they are bound by their partner’s geography, limited by their funds, and/or burdened by familial obligations. In addition, there are the women who drop out of philosophy, many of whom leave the field because they find it arrogant, competitive, and pedantic.

Over the next three years or so, the CSW will work to encourage more women, particularly women from under-represented groups, to enter and stay in the profession. Please contact me or any other CSW member if you wish to help with this initiative and/or if you had ideas about how to organize it.
Appreciatively to all the women in the profession. It is better for our active presence!

Rosemarie Tong
Chair, Committee on the Status of Women
Distinguished Professor in Health Care Ethics
Director, Center for Professional and Applied Ethics
Department of Philosophy
The University of North Carolina–Charlotte

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