7/7/14

Gender Gaps

There's a lot of worry in philosophy about the gender gap: Why does it exist? What should we do about it?  I sometimes wonder why this is thought to be so vexing and urgent, compared to other gender gaps.  The person who fixes our air conditioning is always a man. The people who mow our lawn are 100% male.  The folks who service our car are all male.  The people who try to sell you a car are almost always male.  The termite inspector is male.  Food for thought: is the gender gap equally problematic in all these areas, or especially problematic in philosophy?   Should we care about all gender gaps equally?

1 comment:

s. wallerstein said...

There not being women in philosophy or there being very few women in philosophy is more like there not being women in politics than there not being women who fix cars.

It's seems worthwhile that government (in this case, congress) has the input of women, since they not only are half the population and should be represented, but also have their own voice, which should be heard in society.

So too with philosophy: if philosophy is the love of wisdom (at least in theory), how can
we understand what wisdom is without hearing what women have to say on the subject?

We probably would learn something new (and worth paying attention to) by listening to women.