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Quantifying the Gender Gap: An Empirical Study of the Underrepresentation of Women in Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Molly Paxton ,
Carrie Figdor  and
Valerie Tiberius
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Abstract

The lack of gender parity in philosophy has garnered serious attention recently. Previous empirical work that aims to quantify what has come to be called “the gender gap” in philosophy focuses mainly on the absence of women in philosophy faculty and graduate programs. Our study looks at gender representation in philosophy among undergraduate students, undergraduate majors, graduate students, and faculty. Our findings are consistent with what other studies have found about women faculty in philosophy, but we were able to add two pieces of new information. First, the biggest drop in the proportion of women in philosophy occurs between students enrolled in introductory philosophy classes and philosophy majors. Second, this drop is mitigated by the presence of more women philosophy faculty.

Type
Musings
Information
Hypatia , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , Fall 2012 , pp. 949 - 957
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by Hypatia, Inc.

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