| Author(s) | Fiona Jenkins |
| Journal | Journal of Social Philosophy |
| Abstract | This article examines philosophy’s persistent gender gap by comparing it with social science disciplines rather than the typical STEM comparators. Drawing on the Gendered Excellence in Social Sciences (GESS) project, it argues that mainstream explanations focusing on implicit bias and “male-associated” disciplinary characteristics inadvertently reinforce philosophy’s alignment with “hard” sciences, obscuring important factors in disciplinary transformation. Analysis of publication and citation patterns reveals that while philosophy shows minimal engagement with feminist scholarship in top journals, feminist philosophy has substantial interdisciplinary influence. The article suggests that positioning philosophy among social sciences illuminates how disciplines become more gender-balanced through responsiveness to social change and incorporation of feminist perspectives, rather than merely through bias elimination. This reframing challenges narrow conceptions of progress and suggests that achieving gender equality may require deeper epistemic transformation rather than simply correcting bias within existing disciplinary frameworks. This content was generated by artificial intelligence using the text of the original work and reviewed by the author. |
| Keywords | gender gap, philosophy, social sciences, feminist scholarship, disciplinary change, implicit bias, interdisciplinarity, gender schemas, academic excellence, epistemic transformation This content was generated by artificial intelligence using the text of the original work and reviewed by the author. |
| Date Published | December 1, 2021 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 368-385 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.12451 |
| Google Scholar Link | https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=5177835131988034897&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 |
| Open Access? | No |
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