WOMEN IN PHILOSOPHY: QUANTITATIVE ANALYSES OF SPECIALIZATION, PREVALENCE, VISIBILITY, AND GENERATIONAL CHANGE

Abstract

Drawing on data from a range of publicly available sources, we analyze the prevalence, visibility, and subfield specializations of women in philosophy, and how the situation has changed over time. Our data strongly support three conclusions: (1) gender disparity remains large in mainstream Anglophone philosophy; (2) ethics, construed broadly to include social and political philosophy, is closer to gender parity than are other fields in philosophy; and (3) women’s involvement in philosophy has increased since the 1970s. However, women’s involvement and visibility in mainstream Anglophone philosophy has increased only slowly; and by some measures, there has been virtually no gain since the 1990s. We find mixed evidence on the question of whether (4) gender disparity is greater at the highest level of visibility or prestige.