Philosophers Are Employable!

At least in the UK, those possessing philosophy degrees are apparently increasingly in demand.

Lucy Adams, human resources director of Serco, a services business and a consultancy firm, says: “Philosophy lies at the heart of our approach to recruiting and developing our leadership, and our leaders. We need people who have the ability to look for different approaches and take an open mind to issues. These skills are promoted by philosophical approaches.”

Fiona Czerniawska, director of the Management Consultancies Association’s think tank, says: “A philosophy degree has trained the individual’s brain and given them the ability to provide management-consulting firms with the sort of skills that they require and clients demand. These skills can include the ability to be very analytical, provide clear and innovative thinking, and question assumptions.”

It’s often suggested that the dearth of minorities (and sometimes women) in philosophy is due in part to worries about getting a job. If that’s right, then one way to increase diversity in philosophy departments may be to publicise the employability of philosophers. (Thanks for the link, CH!)

Fallacies for feminist philosophers

Can you share a favorite case of a fallacy-for-feminist-philosophers?  Or add something to the tentative discussion below of the ‘second kind’ of fallacy?  If so, please join in with a comment.

There are lots of times when a good fallacy comes in handy.  Critical thinking classes are one, but in most philosophy classes I  teach, it’s necessary at some point to discuss a fallacy and often to go a bit more generally into fallacies and fallacious reasoning.  I assume others find this true.

There are two kinds of examples of fallacies for feminists that I can think of.  One kind is a perfectly ordinary, standard kind of fallacy, but the specific example illustrates a  feminist point.   The other kind includes the fallacies that show up in reasoning about women (and sometimes others), but which may not have a standard name. 

For example, I think this post is concerned  with a common fallacy-of-composition-PLUS-fallacy-of-equivocation that is rampant in science popularizations.   It would be great to have a name for  it.   Maureen Dowd’s recent piece on Hillary Clinton –  discussed in an earlier piece today –  is an extended use of a fallacy that is showing up a lot in conservative writing about HC, and in some more liberal writers too.  And, of course, it’s applied to lots of other women.  It might  be  nice to be able to say when one hears this stuff, “Well, that’s just the same old fallacy of X.”

Supposing it’s true that these last two cases don’t have names and should, I’ll suggest a candidate for each.   Please bring in alternatives if you want.

For the first: The fallacy of cognitive displacement.  E.g., assuming women think with their ovaries.

For the second:  The fallacy of gendered projection:  E.g., assuming that one’s problems with powerful women reveal important facets of other people.

(I’m not completely happy with either of these; the second seems particularly hard to name.)

If we start to find enough of these unnamed fallacies,  we could adapt a recommendation of Calypso’s and call them the  fallacies of pernicious effect.  The effect being at least the further spreading of sexist attitudes.

Please add anything you like!

Correspondence on Bangladesh

Kathy Ward tells us:

the electricity and internet connection is back on at nari jibon. see sujan’s pictures and story…including another cyclone baby:

http://narijibon.blogspot.com/2007/11/after-cyclone-sidr.html

…

we will have more stories this week (according to the staff).

The link on Kathy’s name will also take you to her blog and more news and reflection.

Maureen Dowd breaks record for sexist journalism

The record is for the winner in the category of “those who do know better.”  Here’s how she did it:

What is the environment for the woman who is the first ever to do such-and-such?  Well, she’s often one woman in a hitherto exclusively male club.  Feminism has made us aware of the temptation to describe the significance of her actions in terms of their (conjectured) gendered impact on the guys.   To do so is more than belittling; if people take you at all seriously, it is damaging in a way that goes beyond what the actions alone merit.   It strengthens  the  biases that  give her an unfair extra burden.

Here are things you might be tempted to think. But to do so is really to once again position a woman as a kind of sex object.

If she is tough, she’s their dominatrix.  
If she puts one of them down, she may be just like his wife. 
If she swears,  you should described it as directed now and in the past at the men.

The following should be an easy question on the “do you have any grasp of your own biases” test:

True or false:  Women’s actions are significant in so far as they are part of a continuing struggle between the sexes. 

False.  To publish such a view of Hillary Clinton  in the New York Times  is unconscionable.  And Maureen Dowd has done it.

Feminist Publishing in Philosophy of Science

Evelyn Brister, of Knowledge and Experience, has some interesting thoughts on this here. (Thanks, Sally!)

Raped Men and Silence

A few days ago, I wrote about the story of a Saudi woman who was gang-raped. She was alone with an unrelated man at the time of the attack, which is why she was sentenced to 90 lashes, later increased to 200 when she appealed and her lawyer went to the media. What I didn’t know, and what was almost nowhere reported, was that the man who was with her was also raped– and also sentenced to 90 lashes. (He didn’t appeal.) It’s very important to remember that it’s not only violence against women that may go unreported. Jill at Feministe has the story, and a very good discussion of how its reporting plays into larger Islamophobic narratives.

For Canadian and US readers: Giving and Getting

UPDATE: The program described below has been extended to Dec. 31st.  Thanks to Kathy in the comments for the information. 

For $399 you can give a laptop to a child in a developing country AND get one for a child in your life. The laptops look great for children anywhere, and the price is good for one laptop, let alone two. They have all sorts of extras, including a built in camera.

THE PROGRAM HAS EIGHT DAYS TO GO.

 Here’s the website.  It says, unfortunately, that the program is only for  the US and Canada.

Microsoft, and so Bill Gates, is the power behind this.

Correction above:  Thanks to Mr. Jender for pointing out the mistake about Bill Gates (see comments).

“a guilty pleasure”

Some UK bloggers were writing about this last year, but it’s just coming to US attention.  Foreseeing a stressful  weekend, I ordered it from Amazon.com  last week.  Truth be told,  I’m feeling much better after a double dip last night. 

It’s not fattening and there is no haze or hangover the next  day.  All there is is a sneaking suspicion one should have been more critical. 

The source?  It’s “The Amazing Mrs Pritchard,” which is now showing on PBS’s Masterpiece Theater.   It’s a silly fantasy in many ways; a very bright and determined manager of a supermarket expresses a few strong political feelings and ends up Prime Minister of England, with many women occupying important positions in the government.

The acting is first rate, and the men are – so far, anyway – scoundrels, except for the occasional sex object.  O dear.  Very, very much the shoe on the other foot.

Strong criticism is possible.   But it strikes me as rather like saying that animals are clearly incapable of effectively replacing humans in the running of a farm.  True, but it misses the point of Animal Farm.

The title of this post was borrowed from a  comment in an NY Times review. The reviewer also says:

”-“A woman needs a man like a fish needs a-bicycle” kind of feminism that feels as distant and goofy to us now as the “Mad Men” era of sexism it fought to depose.

This view of the series is echoed in a number of feminist comments on it on the web. I’m reflecting on whether the era of 1970’s sexism in philosophy hasn’t renewed itself decade by decade. Are women in other professions now experiencing a professional world so different from that in so many philosophy departments?

Overtones of Homophobia????

This article from MSNBC reports that Iran has spared a man scheduled to be hanged for homosexual acts, after the international outcry against the planned execution. Good news that he’s been spared, but horrendous that he should have to be.  And completely bizarre reporting:

With overtones of homophobia, suspicions of political retaliation and a conviction based on activities that allegedly occurred eight years earlier, when Mouloodzadeh was just 13, his case captured the attention of a number of international groups that are trying to pressure Iran into improving human rights for women, gays and children. 

Planning to execute someone for homosexual acts has overtones of homophobia? Overtones??  

Bangladesh: Hurricane and Blogging

Back when we hosted the Carnival of Feminists, JJ found the wonderful blog Bangladesh From Our View, written by women and girls in Bangladesh.  Kathy Ward, who helped set it up, has now written to us (and on her blog, Bideshi Blue) to tell us about the huge hurricane they have suffered and the lack of attention to their plight.

I am both shocked and dismayed at the lack of knowledge about the Category 5 hurricane that just plowed into Bangladesh on Thursday–a South Asian country with 140 million people and geographic size of the state of Wisconsin–but little international attention except for its cheap garment production-factories, remitting migrant workers in the Middle East and elsewhere, Army-Peacekeepers for the UN…According to many sources, the death toil from Cyclone Sidr has risen to 1000+ and many more thousands are injured and/or lost their dwellings-livestock-livelihoods amidst the coming Bangladesh cold, collapse of Bangladesh’s power grid, and resultant loss of mobile, internet, and phone networks and safe potable water.

Amazingly, the women and girls over at Bangladesh From Our View are still coming to classes, and writing material for their blog, to be posted when they get electricity– a real tribute to their strength, and also to the importance of the project of giving these people a voice and getting it heard.