The new issue of the APA Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy has been posted online. This issue includes the study by Miriam Solomon that I mention in the previous post. It also includes the papers from the Central Division 2007 session sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women, except for Sally Haslanger’s article which was published in Hypatia (Sally Haslanger. “Changing the Ideology and Culture of Philosophy: Not by Reason (Alone).” Hypatia 23 (2008): 210-23). There is also an additional article by Kathryn Norlock. I was a participant on that panel and so my article is there.

Kathryn Norlock makes some interesting points in her article, which is an extended argument for collecting data on women in philosophy. Most particularly I was chastened when she notes that one reason that we might think that we shouldn’t collect the data is that “Women do enough service already. Women in academia are already well aware that we have limited time and resources. Every pursuit is a diversion from other pursuits, and when women in philosophy make it our task to do the work of disciplinary demography, a service which, in other fields, would be accomplished by a national organization, we succeed in adding to the service labors which women already over-perform.”

This point hit home. In addition to this article, I will have another in a collection of papers from a second, follow-up panel. This will appear in the fall issue of the newsletter. I have spent quite a bit of time on the issue over the course the last several years, so much so that when I was lamenting my inability to focus on my primary research project, science and values, my partner pointed out that I had spent so much time on women in philosophy that it was no wonder that I hadn’t done anything else!

Take a look at the articles if you have not already. Obviously I think this is worth continuing to worry about.