Improving the Participation of Women in the Philosophy Profession

Author(s)	Eliza Goddard, on behalf of Susan Dodds, Lynda Burns, Mark Colyvan, Frank Jackson, Karen Jones, Catriona Mackenzie
Abstract	Despite a number of successful initiatives to improve gender equity in Universities, the participation of women in philosophy programs appears to lag behind that in other areas of the Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2006 a Committee of Senior Academic Philosophers was formed to address the Status of Women in Philosophy in Australia. The project, Improving the Participation of Women in the Philosophy Profession, investigates some possible causes for an anomaly: that more than half of the students enrolled in undergraduate philosophy subjects in most Universities are women, and yet there is only a small proportion of women philosophers holding higher level positions in the profession. The project involved the collection and analysis of data pertaining to staff and students in philosophy programs in Australia. These data were then compared with data from the Australian University sector generally to ascertain the key stages in women’s education or careers where they are likely to either leave Philosophy or stall in their academic careers. The identification of these stages would then provide the information needed to develop targeted strategies to enhance women’s participation in the profession.
Keywords	women in philosophy, gender equity, academic staffing, career progression, student retention, doctoral completion, selection committees, continuing positions, inverse relationship seniority, casualization, appointment rates, Honours programs, professional recommendations, Australian universities, participation targets This content was generated by artificial intelligence using the text of the original work.
Institution/Society	Australian Association of Philosophy
Date Published	May 2008
Page Count	17
URL	https://aap.org.au/Resources/Documents/publications/IPWPP/IPWPP_ExecutiveSummary.pdf