Is the glass ceiling a myth?

Turns out the problem is worse than we thought.

In the post “New Research Busts Myths About the Gender Gap” researchers Christine Silva and Nancy Carter write: “Our study’s overall finding is clear: The problem isn’t only a late-career phenomenon by which women are denied the big promotion after having advanced steadily alongside men. Rather, the entire pipeline is in peril. More particularly, our research has managed to explode four prevailing myths about the progress of women in workplaces.”

Myth #1: It’s mainly a pipeline problem.
Myth #2: Women’s relative progress just got a boost from an economic downturn that hit men harder.
Myth #3: To the extent there’s still a gap, it’s because of women’s choices.
Myth #4: With more mentoring, women will be better prepared to take on the top jobs.

Read more about these myths here at the Harvard Business Review Blog.

Thanks SD.

Men visit Arche

Arche – the AHRC and CSMN-funded research center at St. Andrews – has a list of upcoming visitors here. All are male.

I don’t know what the distinction is between the “Forthcoming Visitors” column and the “Forthcoming Speakers” column, but the latter has a better gender balance. If you combine the two lists, however, women still make up less than 10% of the visitors to Arche.

Arche is also (unsurprisingly, I guess, given the visitor lists) currently advertising two all-male events an all-male event (thanks for the correction, Catarina!). Details here.

(Thanks for the tip, R!)

*UPDATE* 

There’s a very helpful response in the comments to this post from Katherine Hawley (Head of School at St. Andrews) and Jessica Brown (Director of Arche). Please do take the time to read it. Arche postdoctoral fellow Derek Ball has also commented, and I wanted to highlight this in particular:

Perhaps it is appropriate to mention here that in many cases, Visitors apply to come. We would welcome applications from women (http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~arche/visitors/scholar.shtml), and advice about how to attract such applications would be gratefully received.

Thanks very much to Katherine, Jessica, and Derek for joining the discussion!

Protests with childcare provided

Awesome.

Needed: Information on Women Philosophers Who Have Died Since 2000

Kate Lindemann writes:

A few weeks ago Noelle McAfee who hosts the Contemporary Women Philosophers wiki contacted me to point out a growing lacuna in the online presence of women philosophers. Her site provides information about living women philosophers ; mine provides information about women who lived and died before 2001.

But in these last years there are a number of women philosophers born in the 20th century who died since 2001. They are falling through the cracks since up til now there has been no place for them on either site.

One of the reasons I set a limit of 2000 is that I knew I could never do the necessary research to include ALL the women philosophers after that. I am one person, have no institutional support, clerical assistance or funding. But like Noelle I am concerned about women philosophers who are ‘ falling through the cracks’ of on line research tools.

Soooooo – I have decided to add a button: 2001 – to the website. I will add women who die or have died since 2000 IF I RECEIVE information in usable form.

Right now the site provides both a Chronology [not a biography] and a Bibliography for each woman. If submitted I would add these to the site. If that seems like too much work, I would add an Obituary or an eulogy or another statement submitted by a SWIP member or college/university department. (I would add one of these, not all). For these I ask that folks consult one another so that only one item is
submitted in a form suitable for posting If you want to include a photo, I can upload thumbnail gif or .jpg. The size must be as small as other photos on the site since I do not do photo editing.

I want to include these women. They deserve to be listed among the women philosophers ……. but I have limited energy and no institutional support for this work.

Thank you. I trust that this will work out….though I fear I may be inundated with posts of ‘why don’t you have xxxxx’ on your site. I can not do the research…nor will I check accuracy of materials submitted.
(My own research concerns a whole group of Renaissance Italian women and a new list of ancients I have found.)

Please, if there is a woman philosopher who deserves recognition, I hope you will take it upon yourself to submit the information. I DO credit those who submit so include your name….. and your affiliation if you want that added.

Kate’s site is here.